The Brothers Namikaze
by AQZT
Summary: After being blasted back in time to right before the start of the Third Shinobi World War, Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto decides that he will do his utmost to save his parents' lives. Now if he could only figure out how... On indefinite hiatus.
1. Chapter 1: Rebirth

**EDIT A/N: This is the repost of the first chapter of my story ****The Brothers Namikaze****.**

**The original story got deleted due to... circumstances outside of my control.  
**

**Anyhow, I was luckily able to salvage the first chapter from my notes on the plotline. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to rewrite the next four chapters of the story from scratch. However, since I no longer have finals, I should have much more time to work on this for the next week before summer classes start up, so I'm hoping to rewrite the next four chapters by Friday.**

**Yeah, anyways, enjoy!**

**The Brothers Namikaze**

**Chapter 1: Rebirth**

Naruto woke up.

At first, there was only blinding _pain_ everywhere. His head, his chest, his joints, his limbs, everything was _burning_ so much that he couldn't even move. As a coppery taste filled his mouth, he realized that he had coughed up blood.

Slowly as the pain began to subside, he began to notice his surroundings. Rock walls stretched all around him, piercing upwards into an impenetrable inky blackness. He seemed to be lying on some alcove in a massive cave. A bright light shone off in one direction, presumably leading to the exit.

Naruto slowly took some deep breaths to calm himself as he tried to remember exactly what had led to-

_He had been fighting Pein. After Hinata had thrown herself in front of an attack on him and was killed moments after she had confessed her love for him, he had gone completely berserk. Then, just as he was about to completely unleash the kyuubi, __**he**__ had appeared._

_Namikaze Minato, Konoha's Yellow Flash, the Yondaime Hokage, his __**father**__. Minato had told Naruto about his dream of uniting the Shinobi Villages, and ending the cycle of hatred, and Naruto had agreed to carry forth his father's dream, and Minato had moved to reseal the Kyuubi, but then-_

A blank.

What had happened next? To his growing horror, Naruto realized that he couldn't _remember_. He had no idea how he had ended up in this position, stuck in this cave.

_Ah, well. No point in panicking. I need to figure out exactly what's going on and where, exactly, I am right now._

With a sigh, Naruto moved to get off the alcove. And then he looked at his legs.

His very short, stubby legs. His very short, stubby legs that most certainly _did not_ belong on a sixteen year old.

Oh _shit_.

Naruto dropped down and winced slightly at the lance of pain that suddenly shot through his feet as he hit the floor, but shoved it to the back of his head in favor of making a mad dash for the cave's entrance.

As the sunlight hit his eyes, Naruto winced once again as he absently noticed that it was currently around noontime, filing that little piece of information away for later as he frantically looked around until he noticed a stream a short distance away. Naruto bolted as fast as his little stubby legs could push him and stopped next to it.

Slowly, almost fearfully, Naruto peered into the spring and saw his reflection.

Two facts stood out immediately:

One, his entire body had _shrunk_. His face, once lean and strong, was now once again covered with baby fat. His arms, once heavily muscled, reflecting the long hours of training he had put in during his three year trip with Jiraiya, were now small, weak and stubby. He was only about half of his original height. All in all, Naruto looked like he was eight years old all over again.

Which he was.

In addition to this, he realized that, instead of his original black and orange jumpsuit, he was wearing what looked to be a simple white jacket with a green stripe down each arm.

But the second point was what truly shocked him. His eyes trailed up to look at his face once more, and he ran his hand down his cheeks.

His completely smooth, unmarked cheeks.

The six whisker marks that had been present on his face for his entire life were gone.

Naruto's whisker marks had always been important to him. They were a mark of his individuality, a mark of _who he was_. They marked him as unique, his own person. The marks were something that people _recognized_ him by. In a village filled with people who tried their utmost to ignore him and pretend that he did not exist, any attention, even negative, was something that Naruto enjoyed. That was the reason why, when the Sandaime had offered to remove the marks when he six, so that he would no longer have to suffer from the villagers' glares, he had refused.

He was Uzumaki Naruto, and he was proud of it! Believe it!

And as he looked closer, Naruto realized that there were other, smaller differences on his face. His face was slightly more angular, his eyes were no longer slightly slitted, his hair was slightly longer.

All in all, if before, Naruto had looked extremely similar to his father, now he could pass for the man's twin.

Oh _double_ shit.

He didn't know how long he spent kneeling next to the stream, tracing over his cheeks over and over, but nothing changed.

When he did, Naruto immediately began contemplating what had happened.

Is this a genjutsu?

No, if it was a genjutsu, the bastard fox would have immediately broken him out of it…

_Wait a second, the __**fox**__, that's it!_

Naruto sat back in the Lotus position and began meditating in order to enter his mindscape. Very soon, he felt a tug and followed it in to the depths of his mind.

As usual, he came into the massive sewer that his mindscape seemed to form itself as, and walked to the cage at the center.

And for the umpteenth time that day, Uzumaki Naruto was shocked speechless. Because the cage which once had contained the Kyuubi no Youko, a beast that could destroy mountains and create tsunamis by simply waving its tails, a beast that was quite probably the most destructive creature the world had ever known, a beast that absolutely loathed his home, Konohagakure no Sato, had disappeared.

Oh _triple_ shit.

After another large stretch of time where he was staring at something at an absolute loss for words, Naruto numbly exited his mindscape and collapsed backwards.

_What the hell is going on?_

A few hours later, as he was watching the sunset on the horizon, Naruto's stomach started rumbling and he concluded that he could try to figure out what happened to him later. Eating came first. Preferably Ramen.

XXX

Once he had regained enough control over his limbs after the insane amount of shock he had been through, he had had the sense to check through his pockets and found that he had enough cash on him to buy a few meals. With this in mind, Naruto sat down and began to extend his senses, looking for the nearest concentration of chakra signatures so that he could find the nearest town. The task would probably have been much easier if he used senjutsu, but Naruto had decided that attempting to utilize an ability that had a very real possibility of petrifying him into a toad statue, in a young body which had never formally gone through senjutsu training was an exceedingly bad idea.

After searching for a while, Naruto noticed a large collection of small chakra signatures around ten miles to the northeast of where he was. With a sigh, Naruto picked himself up and began the long run to the town.

When Naruto arrived at the gate to Tanzaku-Gai, the sun had completely set, and it was around midnight.

Naruto immediately knew that there was something wrong.

Naruto had come to Tanzaku-Gai around three years ago when he and Jiraiya had retrieved Tsunade. During his brief stay there, Naruto had been dragged all over the place by Jiraiya when he was 'asking' around the whorehouses in the area about Tsunade's whereabouts. As such, even though he had not stayed in the city for a long time, Naruto had a fairly good idea of how it was laid out.

At the beginning, it wasn't that any one thing stood out to him, it was just that something felt… off about the city. Ignoring the feeling, Naruto continued in, but as he kept looking, more and more, he felt that something was _wrong_. There was a group of buildings on one side of the road that he had never seen before, and an empty spot where he remembered there being an establishment of some sort, then there was a place where he was sure there had been a ramen stand before, except that it now served yakitori…

Naruto slowly began to move faster and faster and then broke out into a run, and then a sprint as he pushed and shoved his way through the late-night alcoholics, thugs and whores in the street, drawing more than one angry yell from the people he had shoved his way past. And as he continued forward, he noticed more and more things that didn't match up with his memories. A stand here, a building there. Taken alone, there would not be any cause for concern, since the changes were minor enough that it was plausible they individually had occurred in the time Naruto was away. But taken together…

There's no possible way that the city changed this much in just three years!

And as Naruto continued pushing through the crowd, he came upon Tanzaku Castle and knew that something really messed up was going on.

Orochimaru had destroyed the castle in the massive three-way battle that had erupted between the _Densetsu no Sannin_ (Legendary Three Ninja) during Naruto's last stay in the city.

There was _no possible way_ that the _entire_ castle had been completely repaired in a mere three years. The structure was just too _massive_ for _anyone_ to have been able repair the whole thing in such a short period of time.

The crowd had thinned nearby, enough so that Naruto noticed a newspaper lying on the ground nearby.

Trembling, time seemed to slow as he sluggishly moved to pick it up, and then, with a sinking feeling, he slowly looked down at the date printed on the paper.

Oh _quadruple_ shit.

Uzumaki Naruto had been transported 26 years into the past.

XXX

For Senju Tsunade, the day had been achingly, almost _disappointingly_ normal.

That morning, she had finally arrived in Tanzaku-gai, where she had promptly taken out a large loan in order to indulge in her favorite pastime. Namely, gambling.

That day, she had chosen a small, relatively small, newly-built casino in the city to crash, primarily since "newly-built casino" in her book was a synonym for "casino that didn't have her on a watch-list for unpaid debts".

After entering the building, Tsunade had decided that she was in the mood for some individual gambling that day. As such, she had decided on the slot machines.

And, as per usual, as the day continued on, the pile of chips in her cup slowly whittled away.

And then, just when she was about to stop playing for the day, deciding that enough was enough, something completely unexpected occurred.

She won.

No, _winning_ didn't quite cover what had happened.

She had hit the jackpot.

Nine hundred million Ryo.

The equivalent pay that one would get for around nine hundred S-Rank missions, and more than enough to pay off every single debt the blonde-haired woman had incurred over the past five years of her aimless wandering around the Elemental Continents, twicefold.

For a moment, the granddaughter of the Shodai Hokage blinked.

And then, she felt a growing sense of dread settle over her.

This was bad. This was very, very bad indeed.

It was a simple principle. As long as Tsunade kept losing, she knew that everything was safe. Her life would continue as usual, and no major problems would occur. The status quo would be maintained as usual.

However, when she won... _that_ was always when the trouble started.

And of course, that trouble was _always_ proportional to how much money she won.

And now, she had just won enough money to buy her an estate twice the size of the Senju Clan Compound.

Conclusion: She needed to get the hell out of there as fast as she humanly could.

And so, quickly gathering up her chips and her jackpot money, she made a beeline for the cashier, vainly hoping that she could outrun whatever misfortune had found her this time.

XXX

Naruto had wandered down the street in a daze, muttering out half apologies and sorries to people who he accidentally ran into, too out of it to really care or pay attention to his surroundings.

As such, when he was thrown onto the ground by push, he at first could do nothing but stare straight forward for a few seconds. When he finally regained enough sense to look up to see exactly who had so rudely pushed him down, Naruto saw an obviously drunk man standing in front of him.

"Why yoush little bwat... hic... Watch where yoush going!"

In most normal cases, Naruto would have just murmured out an apology and continued on his way.

However, right now, the young blonde had just found that he was stuck in an eight-year-old body, had lost track of the most powerful beings in the world, a being that, he knew, would not hesitate to destroy his home if given even the slightest chance, and then to top it all off, he had found that he had been blasted a very long time into the past.

In other words, Naruto was not in a good mood, and so, he had a _lot_ of stress to work out. Stress which this drunk, uncoordinated man in front of him had just offered so _graciously_ to relieve.

And so, Naruto punched him in the gut. Hard.

For a moment, he was satisfied at the almost comically shocked expression that appeared on the intoxicated man's face.

And then, said man was hurled back, crashing through the wall of the nearby building, where he crashed down in front of another man who was also obviously very drunk.

No doubt shocked by the sudden destruction of the wall of the bar had just been in the man who the drunk had landed in front of, turned around and promptly punched another man standing behind him in the face.

Naruto was somewhat less satisfied than he had been a few moments earlier when a massive brawl promptly broke out on the street around him.

XXX

Tsunade had remained on her guard, even after she had successfully managed to cash in her chips. Of course, when the man at the cashier's desk had seen the sum she had won, he had tried to wheedle and delay her departure, but a quick glare from the woman had caused him to back down, and her money was meekly handed to her a few moments later.

At this point, she felt slightly hopeful that she just _might_ have managed to outrun her misfortune. But then, she had heard something._  
_

At first, it sounded like vague noises of men shouting at each other, but as she slowly approached the exit to the gambling den where she had been staying for the night, she slowly made out the noises of fists impacting flesh, and bottles shattering.

And then, the vague sense of dread she had felt just a moment before returned tenfold.

Slowly, she opened the front door.

And saw a massive melee that had somehow erupted on the street in the two minutes it had take for her to get from the cashier to the front door of the gambling den.

She sighed.

Today _really_ wasn't her day.

XXX

Having decided to just give up, Tsunade was slowly wading through the crowd around her when she saw _him_.

_He_ was a young boy with spiky blonde hair, beautiful blue eyes. He looked to be around eight-years old, and was wearing a dirty jacket with yellow stripes on the sleeve.

Of course, that wasn't what _really_ caught her attention about him. No, that was accomplished by the sheer absurdity of what the eight-year old was doing. Namely, holding off three large men with nothing more than the broken leg of a chair that he had probably grabbed off the ground.

And for a moment, absolutely shocked, the Sannin watched the boy dance, jump and nimbly dodge his way around the older men's blows, striking at every opening they left.

An _eight-year old child_ was fighting on par with three adults simultaneously!

In fact, she was absolutely certain that he would have _won_ the fight, if a bottle hadn't unexpectedly flown from across the alley and hit him square in the back, throwing him slightly off balance for a moment. By itself the bottle would not have caused too much damage, but the loss of balance provided the fatal opening that one of the three adults managed to exploit to grab hold of the boy.

Then, the three of them pushed him to the ground and started pounding him.

Tsunade saw red.

Before she even realized what she was doing, she had picked up the man who had restrained the poor boy and bodily threw him across the alleyway, sending him crashing through the wall of a small bulding. Afterwards, she instantly clenched her fists and delivered two punches that could literally shatter steel to the the other two men's guts, sending them right after their unlucky friend.

Then she spun around, grabbed the boy by the waist, and instantly disappeared in a sealless shunshin.

A moment later, the two of them arrived on a small road a block away from the melee, and she delicately put the child down in front of her. A look both concerned and curious flashed across her face.

"Are you all right gaki?"

XXX

Naruto stared in disbelief at the woman whom he had most certainly not expected to meet anytime soon.

_Tsunade-baachan? I come back 26 years into the past and she's the first person I meet? What are the _odds_?_

"Oy Gaki. I asked you a question."

Naruto was snapped back out of his musings by the woman currently holding him up in front of her face as if he was a particularly interesting specimen she was using in an experiment.

"O-oh. I'm fine! Thanks baachan!"

The last word had slipped out on accident. Calling Tsunade "baachan" had been an instinct that had been so deeply ingrained in his psyche that he had unconsciously let it out after seeing the woman once more. Realizing his slip up, and the fact that he had just called a woman who could break steel walls with her bare hands "old", and that this time around, said woman had absolutely no motivation to avoid killing him for the perceived insult, he slowly, timidly turned to look at her face. Maybe he _wouldn't_ be killed, he rationalized. Maybe that supernatural luck that he seemed to have whenever he gambled would act up _just this once_ and get him out of the _exceedingly_ bad situation his big mouth had just put him into.

Naruto saw the vein that had visibly popped out of Tsunade's head, and that small spark of hope was immediately extinguished.

He was _so_ dead.

Then she spoke.

"_What was it that you just called me _gaki_?_" she asked calmly with an angelic smile on her face, which was contradicted only by the fact that she was currently radiating enough killing intent to cause the all the people in a 100-meter radius to soil themselves.

Mind racing for a suitable response to the question that would let him get out of this exceedingly bad situation his big mouth had gotten him into, Naruto spoke, "I-I just called you… _Obachan_! That's right! I called you _Obachan_! After all, there is no possible way that I could think of an utter picture of health, youth and beauty such as yourself as an _Obaachan_. I mean, there's just no way!"

Tsunade looked skeptical, and for a moment, the killing intent intensified. However, a second later, she relented and gave the poor boy a sweet smile. "That's exactly what I thought."

For a moment, Naruto just stared at her, vaguely realizing just how big of a landmine he had just avoided.

Then he collapsed to his knees.

The smile on Tsunade's face instantly vanished and was replaced by an expression of pure concern.

"You all right gaki?"

A loud rumbling sound emitted from the boy's stomach. Tsunade sighed exasperatedly and picked him up.

"Come on gaki, let's get you something to eat."

**Glossary:**

**Densetsu no Sannin: A term that was coined by Hanzo the Salamander, and the title he bestowed upon Jiraiya, Tsunade and Orochimaru, the three students of the Sandaime Hokage. It literally means "The Legendary Three Ninja".**

**Obaachan: Grandma**

**Obachan: Aunty**

**A/N: Yeah, that's the first chapter. Please, feed me reviews. They give me sustenance.**


	2. Chapter 2: The Tempest

**EDIT A/N: So, guys, apparently, one of my old readers, Ms Spooky1, actually saved a copy of the original ****Brothers Namikaze**** on her computer. After informing me of this, she has sent the originals back to me! Thank you very much Spooky!**

**Anyways, I'm going to be staggering my postings in order to look through the chapters for grammatical errors. See you!**

**ORIGINAL A/N: Wow! Seventeen favorites, eighteen alerts, eight reviews, and two **_**author **_**favorites, within two days of posting the first chapter! I'm honestly flattered. This is definitely a lot more than what I expected I would get!**

**Anyways, without further ado, I present the second chapter of The Brothers Namikaze!**

**The Brothers Namikaze**

**Chapter 2: The Tempest  
**

Senju Tsunade sat back as she examined the oddity in front of her.

Said oddity was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, eight-year-old boy, sitting on a chair in front of a stand in the middle of Tanzaku-Gai, currently eating his thirteenth bowl of ramen.

Massive appetite notwithstanding, the boy interested Tsunade in more ways than one.

First and foremost was something that she had only noticed after talking with the child for a bit.

This boy reminded her of another child she had known, a child who, at this point, was long dead.

Her younger brother Nawaki.

It wasn't a physical resemblance, no. After all, Nawaki, with his brown hair, looked almost nothing like the oddity sitting in front of her.

No, it was something deeper, something more intrinsic.

It was their small mannerisms, their enthusiasm, and the simple optimism that just seemed to flow from both boys, that truly dredged up memories she would have rather left buried.

But even then, that didn't even come close to the second point of interest about the boy. It was something that she had only realized when she reviewed her initial meeting with him.

After his verbal slip (_Calling _me_ obaachan!_ Tsunade screamed internally), Tsunade had radiated an immense amount of killing intent at the brat. And there came the strange part:

While almost everyone else in a one hundred meter radius had soiled themselves in fear of the angry Sannin's wrath, the boy had merely trembled. It wasn't that the blonde child hadn't _noticed_ her killing intent.

_He just hadn't reacted_. He, an eight-year-old boy, was better able to deal with her killing intent than adults _four times_ his age! While most people around her had collapsed in terror from the _residue_ of the killing intent she had directed at the boy, said boy had been able to maintain a clear head then formulate a response to a question to get himself out of a bad situation when all logic had stated that he should have passed out from fear! This was no ordinary child Tsunade was dealing with, that was for sure.

Yet even that hadn't held a candle to the third thing she had noticed.

While the oddity had been gorging himself on ramen, Tsunade had taken the liberty of discreetly giving him a full-body checkup.

While most of the things, such as the condition of his heart and internal organs, nutrition, and the condition of his immune system had been completely normal, there was one thing that had stood out above all others.

His chakra coils were _massive_.

The kid had as much chakra as a _high-level jounin_! Hell, he almost had as much chakra as _she_, Senju Tsunade of the _Densetsu no Sannin_, did! Granted, her fighting style's emphasis on _iryou_ ninjutsu and pinpoint chakra control meant that she had smaller chakra reserves than other kage-level ninja, but still, an _eight-year-old boy_ had almost as much chakra as a_ k__age-level ninja_!

This boy was a mystery that Tsunade found _very_ interesting. One that she was determined to solve.

Eyeing the ever-growing stack of empty ramen bowls, Tsunade decided it was time to start asking her questions.

"So, gaki, what's your name?"

XXX

While he had been gorging himself on ramen, Naruto had inwardly been reviewing the facts of his current situation.

One, he was currently trapped inside his eight-year-old body, without the Kyuubi.

This was going to be problematic. For one thing, Naruto had no idea about what his current body was capable of. Would he still be able to churn out armies of shadow clones and throw around Rasenshurikens like candy?

_No_, he admitted to himself, _probably not._

In addition to this, he had no idea whether or not he still had access to senjutsu, and was _singularly_ unwilling to use it, considering the risks (Naruto mentally shivered at the recollection of the large number of toad statues he had seen while he was training in the future) until he could go back to Mount Myoboku and retrain himself.

Which meant that he was going to have to completely overhaul his original fighting style. Naruto's original style had taken full advantage of his insane stamina and chakra reserves, and used armies of shadow clones, whose mere act of creation would have easily killed any other shinobi from exhaustion, as simple _distractions_, and had focused on outlasting and wearing out his opponents, rather than quickly defeating them and moving on, like a normal shinobi would try.

However, crafting a new fighting style wasn't as big of a problem as one would think, especially since he was currently eight years old, and still had quite a while to grow again into his power. All in all, Naruto decided that he would handle this as he went rather than needlessly worry himself about it now.

The second point was, to take a leaf out of a certain Nara's book, a bit more troublesome.

Naruto had been blasted 26 years into the past.

_What should I do?_ he asked himself calmly, _I could try to find a way back to my own time, or try to stay out of everyone's way and hope that I don't change the timeline too much._

Those would be the logical courses of actions. The _smart_ courses of action. The _safest_ courses of action. But then again…

_Do I really want _that_ future to repeat itself? I mean, the Konoha I left had been reduced to a smoking crater in the ground, my best friend betrayed the village and rammed a _chidori_ through my chest, my father, who was supposed to bring a golden age to Konoha died during the Kyuubi attack all of those years ago…_

_No,_ Naruto decided, _I'm _definitely_ not going to let that happen again._

That left the question of exactly _what_ Naruto was going to do now.

_A lot of Konoha's problems could be solved if dad survived the Kyuubi attack, but I can't just perform the Shiki Fuuin myself. After all, jinchuriki can't use… that… jutsu…_

_Wait a second… I don't have the Kyuubi sealed inside me any longer, so I'm not a jinchuriki anymore! That means that I _can_ perform the Shiki Fuuin! I can do it! I can save dad!_

Absently, Naruto noted that he had just eaten his thirteenth bowl of ramen. It was at that moment that Tsunade chose to speak.

"So gaki, what's your name?"

_A name…_

Naruto was just about to spout out his real name when he realized something.

_Wait a second… I was named after the main character of that book that Ero-Sennin wrote, _The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi_. If I remember correctly, he was writing that book at around this time period. That means that calling myself 'Naruto' is going to lead to some suspicion from him. He probably wouldn't be _too_ suspicious, but it _would_ draw an unacceptable amount of interest from him._

This meant that Naruto could no longer afford to be 'Naruto'.

_Hmm… okay that means that I need to pick a new name for myself. I'm going to have to use dad's last name to make sure that I end up close to him, so Namikaze… what? Namikaze… Kinatsu? Takeyoshi? Hideyoshi? No, no, no. Dammit! Whatever name I pick now is probably going to be the one that I'll have to deal with for the next ten years! How am I supposed to make a decision like this on such short notice!_

Abruptly, a voice cut off his thoughts:

"Well, gaki?"

_Ah crap, need to stall for time._

Naruto affected an offended expression on his face.

"Hmph. Well you're rude. Shouldn't you tell me your name before I tell you mine?" he asked petulantly.

Tsunade looked slightly taken aback at his response before composing herself. "My name is Tsunade."

Naruto adopted a surprised expression. "Wait. Tsunade. As in _the_ Tsunade of Konohagakure's _Densetsu no Sannin_?" At her nod, he immediately continued. "WOW! I never thought I'd meet someone as awesome as _you_ over here! Can I have your autograph? Can you teach me some cool jutsu? Is it really true that you and your teammates fought against Hanzo the Salamander and survived?" he gushed, speaking quickly enough that Tsunade seemed to be at a loss for words.

_Hmph, landmine avoided. Now, I need to find some way to convince her to take me to Konoha with her…_

However, the last question that he asked about Hanzo seemed to catch Tsunade's attention. "You seem to know quite a bit about shinobi affairs gaki, considering your knowledge of _that_ fight," she said suspiciously.

Naruto was not blind to the implications of _that_ tone, and quickly moved to dispel the suspicions that were rearing their heads inside of Tsunade's mind. "Yeah! I've always wanted to be a Konoha ninja ever since I heard about how one of them saved Jiji (**Old Man**) a long time ago! Jiji told me all sorts of stories about Konoha after that and he even taught me how to use my kachra and a cool jutsu!" He said, forcing himself to act like his eight year old self.

"Your… kachra?"

"Yeah, you know, that blue stuff that lets shinobi do jutsu!"

"Um… I think you're talking about chakra, kid," Tsunade said with a large sweatdrop sliding down her forehead.

Naruto made a show of thinking.

"Hmm… Oh well, kachra sounds cooler anyways!"

The sweatdrop on the blonde Sannin's forehead grew larger.

XXX

Tsunade leaned back in her chair and contemplated what the child had told her, only vaguely paying attention as the kid continued babbling in the background.

She had noticed how he had frozen up when she had asked his name, followed by his obvious deflection of the question. However, Tsunade had decided not to push too hard. The kid had probably grown up on the streets, and she was just some random lady he had met just today, so he was entitled to his secrets.

This 'Jiji' he had talked about seemed to be some sort of caretaker that had raised him from a young age, probably a retired Konoha shinobi who had decided to leave the village after the end of his duties, considering how the kid had gushed about the village, and how the man was able to teach the brat how to unlock his chakra system.

And on the subject of his chakra system…

The more Tsunade had talked to the boy, the more she had been convinced that leaving the kid in the street was a singularly bad course of action. The kid was a diamond in the rough. With near kage-level reserves at age _eight_, he had the potential to become _insanely_ strong in the future. Leaving a kid like him in the middle of the streets, where a criminal or missing-nin might get their hands on him was not a good idea in the slightest. Thus, Tsunade had only two courses of action left open to her:

One, she could kill him right now, and make sure that he would never fall into enemy hands.

Or two, she could take him to Konoha to be properly trained.

Sighing, and cursing her soft heart, the granddaughter of the Shodai spoke up, cutting off whatever the boy had been chattering about.

"Kid, would you like me to take you to Konoha to be trained as a ninja?"

XXX

Naruto's mind froze.

Here he had been contemplating how exactly he was going to beg and plead with Tsunade to get her to take him to Konoha, and now she was, offering up everything he needed on a silver platter!

This was great!

"REALLY? ! Oh yes, take me there! I'll do anything!"

XXX

Tsunade was slightly taken aback by the kid's enthusiasm, but quickly composed herself.

"Alright kid, pack your things. You have anyone you know around here you want to say your farewells to?" she asked, making sure that she hadn't misinterpreted his situation.

"Nope. I'm all alone. I don't have anything to pack either…" the boy responded with a slightly sad expression, before covering it up with a wide smile.

"Come on then. We leave immediately."

XXX

_Hmm… Namikaze Takashi? No, too common. Namikaze Akane? Nope, too girly. Namikaze Minato? Yeah, that's good! Oh wait, already taken…_

_Aaaaargh! What should I call myself? I can't think of a single name that works!_ Naruto internally screamed, frustrated. Of course, none of his inner turmoil showed itself on his face.

It had been an hour since Naruto and Tsunade had left Tanzaku-Gai. They were currently walking along a road somewhere in the middle of Hi no Kuni. A large forest surrounded them on all sides, while the road seemed to just keep winding on and on. All in all, they were about four hours' travel away from the Hidden Leaf Village.

Since they had left, Tsunade had been conspicuously silent. Rather than try to strike up a conversation with the blonde woman, Naruto had instead taken the opportunity to try and continue to think up an appropriate moniker for himself.

Which had led him to his current predicament.

_Dammit! Every name I think of is too common, too girly, already taken, or bad for a variety of other reasons! Just trying to think of random names doesn't seem to be working. I need to look at this from another angle… Maybe I should start with my real name first, and work from there._

'Naruto' was a word that could be read to mean two different things.

The first reading was 'fishcake', a type of ramen topping. While Naruto had no problem being named after something related to the awesomeness that was ramen, he also realized that giving himself a ramen-themed name was not the best course of action if he wanted people to take him seriously.

Which meant that he could scrap that angle.

The second reading of 'Naruto' was 'maelstrom'. This one had more promise, for obvious reasons.

_Hmmm… If not 'maelstrom', then maybe some other type of storm… 'Hurricane'? No, too long. 'Tornado'? Nope, don't like it. Maybe… 'Tempest'? Hey that's not half bad!_

'_Tempest'_, he mouthed to himself. Yes, that would do. It would do very well indeed.

"Hey, obachan. I didn't actually tell you my name, did I?"

Tsunade didn't seem surprised that he was only now bringing up the subject. "No, no you didn't. You ready to tell me now?"

"Yeah. My name is Arashi. Namikaze Arashi."

**ORIGINAL A/N: Whew, there's chapter 2! A few things about this.**

**First, 'Arashi' means tempest, in case you didn't know that already, or figure it out from context. I got the idea to use the name 'Namikaze Arashi' from 'Kazama Arashi', which was what the Yondaime's name was theorized to be before his real name was revealed.**

**One reviewer pointed out that the whole 'Naruto meets Tsunade' scene from the previous chapter actually resembled a very similar scene from the beginning of the fic 'Konoha's White Streak' by reighost. I actually used that scene as a source of inspiration for my own initial introduction scene. I had hoped that I had made my own scene different enough that the resemblance would not be too overt. In hindsight though, I think they may have turned out a bit more similar than I would have preferred. Ah well, too bad.**

**All in all though, I'm planning on taking this fic in a _completely_ different direction from White Streak, so the resemblance should end with the first chapter.**

**Also, if you haven't read 'White Streak' yet, I heavily recommend that you do. Even though it hasn't been updated in around ten months, what is already posted is absolutely **_**hilarious**_** and well worth the read.**

**NOTE: I have now changed the chapter 1 scene, and a few other things in the fic so that the scene is at least somewhat different from the one from White Streak. Hopefully, it now comes off more as something that was inspired by that fic rather than a blatant copy.**

**Anyways, my loyal minio- I mean readers! Please, review! And read. That's important too. But reviewing always comes first!**

**EDIT A/N: Yes, please review. Reviews feed me and make me happy. And when I am happy, I write chapters faster. So spend twenty seconds writing a review! I benefit, you benefit, so why not?**


	3. Chapter 3: Home Again

**EDIT A/N: And here's the repost of chapter 3.**

**ORIGINAL A/N: YAY! Eleven more reviews!**

**You know, I never understood how satisfying having a ton of people favoriting and alerting your story could be until I actually started writing. I will always sympathize with other fanfic authors from now on!**

***Ahem* Anyways, just wanted to say that all of you guys are awesome. And without further ado, here's chapter 3!**

**The Brothers Namikaze**

**Chapter 3: Home Again  
**

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Professor, Shinobi no Kami, and Sandaime Hokage of Konoha sat at his desk in his office in the Hokage Tower, glaring at his life's greatest enemy.

No matter what tricks he used, no matter how many times he defeated it, this foe would always rear its ugly head again. It was like a… a… a hydra! Yes, that was the word!

Paperwork really was like a hydra: cut off one head and ten more would grow to take its place.

So engrossed was he in glaring his overflowing desk, that the old monkey almost didn't notice when a small slug popped up next to him, deposited a scroll on his lap, and left as abruptly as it came.

_Now that's interesting_, Sarutobi thought to himself calmly, _Tsunade-chan seems to have a message for me._

Sarutobi opened the scroll. On it there were written three lines.

_I'm returning to Konoha with a surprise for you, Sensei._

_Tsunade_

_P.S. Make sure that blonde brat of Jiraiya's is with you when I come to meet you._

Sarutobi felt an involuntary shiver run down his spine.

Why did he suddenly feel like his life was going to get _extremely_ complicated within the next week? And why did he feel that his paperwork was going to double sometime soon?

XXX

Somewhere along a road leading to Konoha, Uzumaki Naruto sneezed.

XXX

Senju Tsunade was a woman who had slowly lost her faith in the home of her ancestors.

At the beginning of the Second Shinobi World War, she, like many other young shinobi of Konoha, had been idealistic, convinced of her village's dominance, which they had held for the six decades since the village's founding.

And then she had seen the reality of war.

First, her beloved younger brother had been killed during a routine patrol, not a week after she gifted the Shodai's necklace to him for his twelfth birthday. Rather than give up her faith, though, Tsunade had persevered, writing Nawaki's death off to bad preparation. In order to make sure that what happened to him would not be repeated, she had started pushing her sensei to make it mandatory to include med-nin in all teams sent to the battlefield. While Sarutobi had not been able to implement this policy due to a lack of the resources needed to train a large number of medics, her lobbying had begat another result: It had led her to meet _him_.

_He_ was a promising young jounin named Kato Dan, who, due to very similar circumstances to her own, had begun, like her, to lobby for the same thing she was. Tsunade had met Dan, she had fallen in love, and as with her brother, had given him her grandfather's necklace. Just like with Nawaki, a week later, Dan had been killed in a skirmish, despite Tsunade's best attempts to save his life.

The event had traumatized the blonde woman, and from that point forth, she had been left with a crippling fear of blood, which made her all but useless as a combat medic.

From that point forth, Tsunade had slowly drifted away from her grandfather's home. At the beginning she would simply ask for short 'breaks' from her duties, and due to her haemophobia, Sarutobi had been willing to grant her these leaves of absence, hoping that some time away from the village would be enough for his student to help her overcome her condition and regain her faith in her home.

Yet as time passed, Tsunade's 'breaks' grew longer and longer, and she slowly grew more and more distant from the Leaf Village, until the Sandaime had finally simply granted her an indefinite leave from duty almost a year ago.

Nowadays, she would only return to the village occasionally in order to visit the orphanage and check up on Dan's now four-year-old niece, Shizune, the child of his deceased sister and brother-in-law.

In another world, given another twenty three years to lament her loss and drown herself in an orgy of alcohol and gambling, Senju Tsunade had become a broken and sad woman, before a certain blonde knucklehead had finally saved her from herself, and restored her faith in the world. In that world, Tsunade would become the Godaime Hokage, and would carry forth her ancestors' Will of Fire into the future of Konohagarkure.

However, that world was no longer this one.

After all, in _this_ world, the Slug Sannin had met that same blonde knucklehead who had restored her faith in the other world twenty-three years earlier.

_Maybe I'll stay in Konoha a bit longer than usual this time in order to observe this kid…_ Tsunade thought to herself.

XXX

Uzumaki Naruto was a very scared boy.

After finally telling Tsunade his new name, the woman had simply stared at him for a short while, seeming to be at a complete loss for words.

Then, she had _grinned_.

And then that _grin_ had morphed into _laughter_.

And then that _laughter_ had morphed into a full-blown _cackle_.

Naruto did not like that grin, that laugh, or that cackle. They were the same grin, laugh, and cackle that Naruto himself always used in anticipation of a particularly evil prank or joke he had just thought up.

_I have a _really_ bad feeling about this…_

XXX

When Naruto and Tsunade had arrived at Konoha, the blonde boy had barely been able to hold back his tears at the sight of the gates of his village, still strong and unbroken, a vast contrast to his last memory of the smoking crater the Hidden Leaf Village had been reduced to in the future he came from.

After being let through the gate by two obviously shocked chuunin, Tsunade had taken the boy into the village.

Naruto had hungrily eaten up the sights of his home, relishing in its now unbroken state, and at the same time, trying to note all of the things in the village that had changed in the future. A building there, a small empty lot there… all in all, it was remarkably similar to his experience in Tanzaku-Gai when he had run through the streets before he 'met' the Slug Sannin.

When Tsunade and Naruto finally stopped in front of a building, the boy had looked up and seen a large hotel in front of them. After they had checked in, Tsunade told him to "wash up" while she took care of some "errands".

The boy happily obliged her. He hadn't had a bath in over a day at this point, and he relished in the feeling of the grime being washed off of his body as the hot water poured out of the shower.

By the time he had come out of the shower, Tsunade had returned from her errand and handed him an outfit (which, he noted, was actually a miniaturized version of the standard Konoha shinobi uniform), which she then instructed him to wear.

Naruto obliged, and Tsunade once again stared at him for a short while before once again breaking out into _that_ grin, laugh, and cackle.

XXX

Senju Tsunade had felt her glee slowly growing over the course of the day.

When she had first decided to take little Arashi back to Konoha, she had been annoyed at having to return to the place of her suffering, the place that had taken so many important things away from her, the one place on Earth which she hated coming to more than any other, but then the little brat had told her his name.

At first Tsunade had been skeptical of the boy's relation to that man. After all, 'Namikaze' was a rather common last name for families of fishermen. At the same time though, she had decided have Minato present during Arashi's introduction anyways. After all, even if they weren't related, it would be rather funny to introduce 'Namikaze Minato' to 'Namikaze Arashi'.

Then, when they had returned to Konoha she had made the kid take a shower in order to make himself presentable to the Hokage. On a whim, while she was out, she had bought the brat a miniature version of the standard Konoha-nin uniform that Minato was always wearing along with his flak vest.

When she had returned and Arashi had put on the clothes, Tsunade had been shocked for a moment.

The resemblance had been _uncanny_.

She had then realized that the two might _actually_ be related.

After cackling for a short while, Tsunade had decided that she needed to confirm one last thing before she went to visit her sensei. After giving the brat some cash and instructions to get something to eat and to be back within the hour, Tsunade had left to have a DNA test done at the hospital with some samples of skin she had discreetly taken from the boy.

XXX

An hour later, an evil-sounding cackle rose up from Konoha General Hospital.

On the other side of the village, Namikaze Minato and Sarutobi Hiruzen shivered simultaneously, though neither knew where the sudden source of uneasiness they felt originated from.

XXX

Nineteen-year-old jounin Namikaze Minato was an idealist.

Born as the only child to a small family of fishermen off the coast of River Country, Minato had, like most of the children in his village, been expected to follow in his parents' footsteps and take up the Namikaze fishing trade. Minato himself had never expected to be any more than a simple civilian for the first four years of his life.

All of that had changed on the day that a small band of Konoha ANBU had pursued a group of dangerous missing-nin to Minato's home. While none of the civilians had been hurt by the ensuing clash, Minato had been in a prime position to watch the battle.

He had been spellbound by the battle between the two groups. After watching the multicolored flashes of the clashing ninjutsu combined with the incredible speed and sheer grace and beauty of the shinobi's taijutsu, all of which seemed to merge into some sort of beautiful and deadly dance, something important had changed within Namikaze Minato.

He had decided that he was no longer satisfied with mediocrity. No longer would the prospect of becoming a simple fisherman be enough for him. He had decided that he wanted to become a shinobi.

While his parents had been surprised at his decision, they had also ultimately accepted it, and done their utmost to support him. After saving up enough money to hire a carriage for him, they had sent Minato to Konohagakure to attend the Ninja Academy.

Initially armed with only the clothes on his back, a small sum of money his parents had given him, the contents of a small knapsack with about a week's worth of food, and a diligence and penchant for extremely hard work that had been drilled into him by his father from a very young age, six-year old Namikaze Minato had arrived at the Hidden Leaf Village.

Minato had quickly impressed his teachers and his peers in the academy with his diligence and his natural charisma, and by the end of his tenure, it had been no surprise to anyone that he had been awarded the title of Rookie of the Year when he graduated a week before his eleventh birthday. When he had written back to his parents, they had been extremely proud of him, and had asked him to visit sometime soon.

Yet that final visit was never to occur. A week after Minato's birthday, the Second Shinobi World War had come to his home. His village had been destroyed in a major skirmishes between Suna and Konoha.

Minato had asked for an immediate leave of absence from the Hokage in order to check on his family's status, but by the time he had arrived, there was nothing left of the village other than a desiccated corpse of a once-thriving community, now filled with the dead bodies of its inhabitants.

Minato had not been able to find his parents amidst the carnage.

_Probably for the best,_ _considering what the other bodies looked like,_ he supposed.

On that day, Minato swore revenge against the people who had so cruelly taken away his family, and to pursue his goal, he had fought, and killed, and destroyed, over and over and over during the course of the Second Shinobi World War.

Years later, he had finally tracked down the leader of the men who had been responsible for his village's destruction to a small home in Taki. He had been in the perfect position to kill the old, retired Suna shinobi. All he needed to do was silently slit his throat from his hiding place, then sneak out. He had begun to move closer to the man, intent on doing just that…

But then, he had seen something that had changed him forever.

Minato had seen the man's granddaughter walk up to him, and had seen the look of happiness and joy on the child's face when she looked at her his mark. Undaunted, he began to move, but then a single thought had crossed his mind which stopped him in his tracks.

_What will happen to that child if she watches me murder her grandfather in front of her?_ He wondered.

Would she grow to become like him? Would she swear revenge like he had? Would she decide to kill him no matter the cost?

At that moment, Minato realized that he could not do it. He could not kill the man, knowing what would happen to his child in the aftermath. Unable to attack, he had quietly slipped away, and the man never found out just how close to death he came on that day.

That had been a life-changing event for Minato. Rather than further pursue revenge, like he had been for the past five years, the blonde man had obsessively attempted to find the root _cause_ of his family's death.

In the end, he had come to one, undeniable conclusion: his parents were killed by a cycle of hatred in the shinobi world, a constant circle of death and revenge that had been going on since the age of the Rikudou Sennin.

From that point on, the Namikaze Minato had decided that he would pursue an end to the cycle of hatred, so that no other child would ever again end up like he did.

Nowadays, the man who would one day be known as _Konoha no Kiiroi Senkou_ lived a rather peaceful life. Though he had no real family left, he still had many close friends and was a well-respected jounin in Konohagakure.

Currently, Minato was taking a break from active duty. After he had been discharged from ANBU Black Ops a week ago at the end of his six-month tenure, the Sandaime had granted him leave for a month in order to get him acclimated to living as a normal person once again.

Which was why the order he was currently holding which told him to report to the Hokage's office immediately was so odd.

_I'm still on break after all, so the Sandaime shouldn't have any reason to want to see me._

_Well, as long as I need to get to the office, I might as well use it as an opportunity to test out _that_ jutsu._

With a slight sigh, Minato formed a sequence of three handseals and disappeared in a yellow flash.

XXX

Around twenty minutes after Sarutobi Hiruzen had sent out an ANBU to collect Minato, he had once again interrupted in his internal rage against the hydras that covered the top of his desk by a Yellow Flash of light.

Sarutobi looked up and was treated to the sight of Namikaze Minato tripping over his feet and falling flat on his face.

Sighing slightly, the Sandaime spoke up, "You, know Minato-kun, it would be nice if just _one_ of my shinobi _used the door_ once in a while."

Laughing sheepishly, while picking himself up off of the floor, Minato looked up, "Ah, sorry Hokage-sama, I've been trying to master this jutsu for a while now, and I've been using every possible opportunity to practice. Anyways, what did you need me for?" He said.

Wordlessly, the Sandaime handed Tsunade's note over. The jounin quickly read it, then looked up at the Hokage.

After a short silence, the blonde man spoke.

"What do you think this 'surprise' that Tsunade-sama has found is? And why does she want _me_, of all people, around when she shows it to you?"

The God of Shinobi sighed to himself, "I don't know, but she should be here in a few minutes, which was why I called you over."

Just then, the two of them heard the sound of footsteps outside the door, and turned to face Tsunade as she entered the room with a massive grin on her face, along with a nervous-looking young boy wearing a blue, standard-issue Konoha-nin uniform.

Before Sarutobi could speak, Tsunade cut him off, "Ah yes, Sensei, I'm glad that you got my note." Turning to Minato, she said, "This surprise is for you too."

"I did get your note, Tsunade," Sarutobi said, firmly directing his student's attention back to himself, "May I ask why you returned? And what this 'surprise' you wish to show us is? Your message was rather… scarce with the details."

The grin on the blonde Sannin's face seemed to grow wider, if that was possible. "Ah, yes. Well, I met this kid during my recent stay in Tanzaku-Gai." She said as she pointed at the eight-year-old boy who seemed to be trying to make himself as small as possible behind the blonde Sannin.

"Yes, and why, exactly was you picking up a random child off of the streets so important that it required my _immediate_ attention?"

"Ah, yes, well that's kind of a long story…"

XXX

As Tsunade related the story of her meeting with the boy to her teacher, Minato studied the child who Tsunade had just introduced. Something looked… familiar, about him, but the association _just_ seemed to elude his grasp whenever he _almost_ got it.

_He looks _just_ like someone I know. I'm fairly certain he's not a Yamanaka, since, despite his hair and eye color, he doesn't look anything like Inoichi-kun, but at the same time, I don't of know any other group with that blonde hair and those blue eyes. Who _is_ this kid?_

And then, the pieces fell into place as the association was suddenly drawn in Minato's head.

The blonde man felt his throat grow dry as his face went completely pale.

"Tsunade-sama," he said in a shaky voice, cutting off the woman's discussion with Sarutobi, "What is this boy's name?"

With a smirk on her face, Tsunade spoke:

"Namikaze Minato, meet Namikaze Arashi, your _younger brother_."

XXX

That day, three synchronized voices coming from the Hokage tower were heard all over Konohagakure no Sato.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHH H!"

**EDIT A/N: Yes, Tsunade is a massive troll. And yes, this is going to be normal behaviour for her.**

**ORIGINAL A/N: Phew, well that's finally done. It took me quite a while to write this entire thing.**

**I apologize for the massive infodumping I did for Minato's backstory, but I wanted to get the thing out of the way immediately so that I wouldn't have to deal with it later.**

**A few things regarding power levels:**

**Naruto: With regards to his chakra levels, he'll probably be able to create around ten kage bunshin at this point before he collapses of chakra exhaustion. At the current time, he is at around genin level. After all, while he has large reserves, he has no Kyuubi constantly refilling said reserves and is stuck in an eight-year old body with crap chakra control. In addition to this, he has no access to senjutsu (And will not be regaining access any time soon, if at all), is only able to perform the Rasengan using kage bunshin, a jutsu which now actually has a noticeable drain on his chakra reserves, and has at best, above average taijutsu skills (Frog Kumite is useless without Sage Mode). While he **_**is**_** strong for an eight-year-old, even **_**Iruka**_**, or any other high-chuunin level Shinobi, could probably take him down easily at his current strength.**

**Minato: Has nearly finished the Rasengan, and is currently in the middle of working on his use of the Hiraishin. In this fic, the Hiraishin is actually a jutsu that requires use of handseals. It's just that in the future, Minato gained such mastery over the technique that he was able to perform it seallessly. He already has his insane mastery over fuinjutsu, and will be teaching Naruto more about it.**

**On the subject of Original Characters:**

**I will be including OCs in this story. Why? Because there aren't any canon characters who are the correct age at the current time to fulfill the roles given to the OCs (Remember that Shizune is currently four, which means that Kakashi's generation of Shinobi are currently all around two or three years old)! THESE OCS WILL NOT BE MARY SUES! They all have specific roles to fill in the story and NONE of them will be one-upping canon characters in any way, shape or form. I have no interest in embarrassing myself by writing a lousy self-insert, and will definitely not be doing so at any forseeable time in the future.**

**As for romance… I will say only two things:**

**MinaKushi. It's going to happen. Deal with it.**

**Romances will NOT be placed in the story for the simple sake of having a romance. All romantic relationships WILL advance the plot in some tangible way. There will be NO pairings added for the simple sake of having a pairing. This is a pit I have seen too many other authors fall into, and one which I have seen too many good fics ruined by. I have no desire to make the same mistake myself.**

**Anyways, please review after reading. Just push that button at the bottom of the page which says "Review" and write something! I don't care how short it is or how inane your opinion is! I want feedback!**

**Now signing out.**


	4. Chapter 4: A Meeting

**EDIT A/N: And here's the repost of chapter 4! Just one more before all of the original chapters are used up!  
**

**The Brothers Namikaze**

**Chapter 4: A Meeting  
**

After the initial shock had worn off, a long and awkward silence ensued. Both of the Namikazes faced one another, seemingly not knowing what to say.

It was Arashi who broke the silence, "Um… Nice to meet you… Kiiroi-Niisan…" he said with a strained grin on his face while scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

Minato couldn't help it. He laughed. Or at least he tried to. The sound that emerged from his mouth sounded more like someone choking on seaweed than a noise that expressed amusement.

He tried to stop, but he simply couldn't bring himself to do so with the sheer absurdity of the situation still weighing on his mind: here he had been hoping for a peaceful month free of work, giving himself a long-deserved break after his stint in ANBU, but just _one week_ after he was discharged, he finds out that he still has living family, and then on his first meeting, his little brother calls him '_Kiiroi-Niisan_' of all things!

And so Namikaze Minato laughed and laughed and laughed, the hysterical noise flowing out of his lungs like a river through a broken dam.

Until Tsunade smacked on the back of his head. _Hard_.

Immediately falling down, head ringing from the force of the blow on his skull, Minato just barely dazedly caught Tsunade's next words.

"Come on kid, my idiot teammate put in a bit too much effort into training you for us to have you go insane now."

Collecting himself, Minato stood up, and faced the blonde sannin, "Ah, thanks for that Tsunade-sama, but, you're sure? I mean, Namikaze _is_ an absurdly common last name," he asked, barely daring to hope.

Tsunade snorted, "Who do you take me for, kid? I had the DNA test performed, and I can definitively tell you that the gaki over there could only possibly be your father, son or brother. I'm fairly certain he's not your father for obvious reasons, and I'm also pretty sure that you weren't sleeping around with women when you were eleven years old, so the only relation he _could_ be is your brother. Unless maybe little Min-_chan_ became a _big boy_ a bit earlier than we thought?" The woman asked while waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

Minato spluttered before regaining control of himself, "No! Of course not!" he declared indignantly.

The Sandaime coughed, stopping the situation before it could grow any worse, "Minato-kun, Arashi-kun, perhaps you two should go out into the lobby so that you can catch up while my student and I have a small… _talk_."

Minato quickly composed himself. "Yes, Hokage-sama," he said, and then grabbed his little brother, who seemed to still be in something resembling shock after watching Minato's outburst, by the wrist and dragged him out of the door.

XXX

After reaching the lobby, Minato stared intently at the boy who he had found out was his brother only a few moments ago. Now that the initial shock of their first meeting had faded, he had taken some time to contemplate this new development. There were a lot of things he wanted to ask: "Where were you for the last eight years?" or "How long have you been on you own?" or a hundred smaller questions about almost everything.

There was only one problem.

He had absolutely no idea how to start a conversation with the boy in front of him.

In the end, it was Arashi who broke the silence, "Ano, Kiiroi-Niisan, are you a shinobi?"

Blinking in surprise, Minato collected himself and sheepishly looking away from his brother for a moment while scratching the back of his head. "Ah, yes I am," he said.

When he looked down, he saw Arashi's eyes shining with awe.

"WOW! That's so cool! My niisan's a shinobi! Are you really strong? Can you teach me how to be a ninja? Can you teach me cool jutsus? Please, please, pleeeeeaaase?"

Unbidden, Minato felt a slight smile coming to his face at the child's antics.

"Maa… Maybe later. For now, why don't you tell me a bit about yourself?"

XXX

After the Minato and Arashi had left, Sarutobi spoke up.

"Well, that explains why you wanted Minato to be here when I spoke with you, but what, exactly, was so interesting about that boy that he absolutely had to be presented directly to _me_? After all, orphans are brought into Konoha all the time. There was no reason for you to bring this matter directly to the Hokage's office. You could have simply informed Minato and let it be," he said calmly.

Tsunade's face went serious, "Well, as I was saying before Minato-kun interrupted, I took the liberty of checking up on the gaki's physical condition while we were eating. Most of the things about him were normal. No diseases, he seemed well-fed, his organs were all in good condition. But then…" the blonde woman paused for a second, looking up uncertainly.

"Go on," the Sandaime said.

"When I checked up on his chakra coils… Sensei, they were _massive_. The kid has almost as much chakra flowing through his body as _I_ do."

The pipe fell out of the old Monkey's mouth, giving voice to the man's shock at his student's candid statement.

After a moment of silence, Tsunade continued, "I couldn't just… _leave_ the kid there with an open chakra system and that much _raw potential_, where any common criminal or missing-nin could pick him up, and the brat _did_ tell me that it was his life's dream to become a Konoha Shinobi, so I decided to bring him here to be trained. After all, the only safe alternative would have been to _kill_ him, and I wasn't willing to do that."

Sarutobi sat back and thought silently for a bit on his student's words.

_Tsunade _did_ make the right decision by bringing the boy here, but…_

"Tsunade-hime, doesn't this seem like it's just a bit _too_ good to be true? A boy who just _happens_ to have an open chakra system and massive reserves simply _happens_ to run into a Konoha shinobi, much less _you_ in the middle of the street, and that same child just _happens_ to have a lifelong dream to become a Konoha shinobi himself? This just seems like too many lucky coincidences lined up together," Sarutobi said.

_After all, living as a shinobi makes a man extremely wary of 'lucky' coincidences._

"I know sensei, but still, as I said, the only other option was death for the boy, and I wasn't willing to kill him. Plus, think about if he's actually telling the truth! The kid is practically potential _incarnate_. With the right training, he will become _insanely_ powerful in the future, and could very easily become a great asset to the village. Also, the kid interested me. I want to see how he will develop in the future."

The Sandaime contemplated the situation for a short while before coming to a decision.

"Very well," Sarutobi signaled to one of the ANBU hidden in the room, "Could you please bring up Minato-kun and Arashi-kun for me?"

XXX

"… and the old pervert just ran away in sheer terror! If you could only have seen the look on his face!" Naruto said, animatedly relaying the (heavily edited) tale of one rather evil prank he had played on Jiraiya during his three-year training trip, as Minato laughed so hard that tears flowed from his eyes.

"That… that's absolutely _brilliant_! I absolutely _need_ to try that out on Jiraiya-sensei the next time he gets back to Konoha!" Minato said when he finally managed to control his laughter.

Abruptly, the older blonde's face grew serious and when Naruto looked up from his conversation with his 'brother', he realized why.

An ANBU had seemingly materialized out of thin air in the middle of the room and was now pointedly looking at the two of them.

"Ah, was there something you needed Inu-san?" Minato asked calmly, his face completely impassive, as if he had not nearly been rolling on the floor with laughter a few minutes before. Naruto took a moment to admire his father's emotional control. To be able to go from laughter to such seriousness in such a short period was truly an amazing show of composure and self-control.

"The Sandaime will see you now, Minato-kun, Arashi-kun."

Minato nodded, "Very well. Come along, Otouto," he said, as his impassive mask cracked slightly and a slight, reassuring grin showed itself on his face.

As Naruto walked up the stairs, he reviewed his accomplishments so far.

First, he had managed to get into Konoha. While his backstory may be slightly suspicious, he highly doubted that his kind old Jiji would really go too far in his questioning. After all, 'Arashi' was 'only' eight years old, right?

And then, he had also managed to make contact with his father, and had managed to get in the man's good graces. After all, if he planned to save the man, he would need to be close enough to him that Minato would share his plans for the Shiki Fuuin with him on the night of the Kyuubi attack, and thus allow him the opportunity to take the older man's place in the sealing.

_While on the subject of the Kyuubi attack, I wonder what actually caused it in the first place? Dad mentioned something about that ditzy masked guy being behind the whole thing, but a few things just don't add up…_

For one thing, it was strange that the masked man chose the day on which Naruto was born in order to stage the attack. After all, if the he was half as deadly and intelligent as his father had suggested, then why had he chosen the _precise_ day on which the _only_ child his father was willing to sacrifice in order to seal the demon was born? Why hadn't he attacked before or after? Iif the man had simply delayed the attack by one month, then there would have been no way for Minato to seal the Kyuubi inside Naruto, and the entire village would probably have been destroyed during Minato's indecision over how to stop the monster.

_No, I'm missing something major here, and until I find out what it is, I won't be able to act._

_Come to think of it though, where _is_ the damn fox right now?_

Before he could continue on that line of thought, Naruto realized that they had arrived at the office. With a deep breath and a reassuring pat from his 'brother,' the boy stepped inside.

XXX

For the second time that day, Naruto faced Sarutobi Hiruzen in the Hokage's office.

Fidgeting nervously while staring at the man, Naruto firmly reigned in his emotions.

When he had first 'met' the Hokage that day, Naruto had barely been able to hold back his tears after once again seeing the kind old man who had practically raised him since the day he was born and had so cruelly been taken from him by Orochimaru. It was only because he had been sent out of the room early that his inner turmoil had gone unnoticed.

The second time, though, Naruto was in much better control of himself.

Sarutobi faced him, expression unreadable.

"Arashi-kun, I have decided what to do with you," he said.

"Yes? Will you let me become a Konoha ninja?" Naruto asked. Not all of the excitement in his voice was faked. After all, becoming a ninja meant that Naruto was one step closer to achieving his goal.

The Sandaime smiled kindly at him, "Yes, but first, there are a few things you will have to do, child. We cannot have just anyone being allowed in the village, so I will need to send you to have a quick interview with the T&I Department." Seeing Minato stiffen and protectively move closer to Naruto, the Sandaime quickly moved to reassure him, "Do not worry Minato, we will not performing any truly invasive procedures on your brother. All we will do is ascertain the boy's loyalty to Konoha and make sure that he is not a spy or sleeper agent of some sort." When Minato still looked like he was going to speak up, Sarutobi seemed to be about to continue before Naruto interrupted.

"Don't worry Kiiroi-niisan, I don't mind," the boy said with a bright smile on his face, "If that's all I need to do to become accepted as a shinobi, then it'll be easy!" Minato backed off, but shot a glance to the Sandaime which told the man that they _would_ be discussing this matter later.

Seeing that the issue had been successfully dealt with, the Sandaime continued, "If you pass this questioning, then I will be happy to enroll you in the academy as a third-year student, provided you meet the minimum academic requirements."

Minato finally spoke up at this point, "Third-year, Hokage-sama? Wouldn't he be slightly out of his depth?"

"Ah, yes, well, according to my student, Arashi-kun has already successfully unlocked his chakra system and already knows how to perform a ninjutsu. As you know, the practical portion of the first two years of the Academy are mainly spent unlocking one's chakra and learning how to mold it properly. Thus, I have determined that he should be able to simply skip to the third year to join his peers if he has sufficient knowledge of what is taught in the first two.

Minato nodded shortly, accepting the explanation, and then shot a short, speculative glance at his 'brother.'

"Yeah! Kiiroi-niisan can teach me everything I need to know, so then I can join the academy!" Naruto said, while grinning widely, inwardly thanking every god in heaven that Jiraiya had forced him to go through every bit of the Academy curriculum he had screwed up on when the two of them were off during his three-year training trip. Minato did not seem too displeased at the suggestion, probably finding the idea of spending time with his new 'brother' to be agreeable, even if that time was spent tutoring the kid.

Hiruzen then continued, "Very well then. If there are no problems, I would like to get the questioning done immediately. Minato-kun, stay here. We have some matters to discuss." Waving to one of the ANBU in the corner, the Sandaime said, "Inu, please lead Arashi-kun to the questioning room."

Nodding, the ANBU silently escorted Naruto out of the room.

XXX

Once Arashi had left the room, Minato immediately spun to look at the Hokage.

"Sarutobi-sama, what is the meaning of this? You know as well as I do that this is far too much questioning for a child of his age. Why are you so suspicious of my brother?" Hiruzen was slightly surprised at the vehemence in the man's voice. It seemed that Minato had forged quite the bond with his brother despite the relatively short time the two had known each other.

Before the old man could respond, Tsunade, who had been silent throughout the entire explanation, spoke up, "Yes, there were several… _suspicious_ matters behind my first meeting with the gaki."

Minato sharply looked at the Sannin, twin sapphires ice cold on his face. He spoke.

"Explain."

The command in that single word was unmistakable.

So Tsunade and the Hokage explained everything about their suspicions about Arashi-kun, and how everything about him seemed… _too_ convenient. After they were finished, Minato leaned back against the wall, seemingly in deep thought, before he straightened himself and spoke.

"Very well. I acknowledge that you had good reason for taking this course of action with my brother. However, I would like for you to inform me before you take any further steps in this line of suspicion in the future."

Sarutobi acquiesced with a nod, and Minato turned to leave, but before he could go, Hiruzen spoke up one last time, his face hard.

"Your brother was lucky that he only showed up now. If he had appeared when we were still at war, I would have been forced to perform far more… _invasive_ procedures on his mind in order to ascertain his loyalty."

Minato shot a sharp look over his shoulder at the Hokage, probing the old man's expression. Sarutobi's face remained set in stone, and after a short analysis, Minato gave him a curt nod before leaving the room.

XXX

Naruto walked out of the T&I department feeling slightly bored.

The interrogation had gone off without a hitch. The Yamanaka interrogator (who Naruto vaguely recognized as a fifteen-year old version of Ino's father) had performed a simple jutsu that allowed him to see Naruto's surface thoughts and determine whether he was saying the truth or a lie, and had asked him a few simple questions. After determining that the blonde boy held no ill-will towards his home, Inoichi had let him go without incident. In the lobby, Minato had picked him up and brought him back to the Hokage's office.

"Very good, Arashi-kun. T&I has assured me that you have nothing but the best intentions for Konoha, and thus, I have decided that you will be allowed to join the ninja academy." At this, Naruto made a victory pose, which caused the three adults in the room to laugh. "There will be a test scheduled in a month's time to make sure that you meet the minimum academic requirements for the class you are being placed in." The Sandaime continued, "Further instructions about this test are written on these," Sarutobi handed Naruto a small stack of papers. "That is all. You are dismissed."

Naruto began to walk to the door before pausing for a moment, then turning around.

"Ano… Jiji, I have a question…"

The adults in the room seemed slightly taken aback at Naruto's informal address of the most powerful man in the village, but quickly composed themselves, probably writing it off to the boy's youth.

"Yes, what is it Arashi-kun? Please make it quick, I have a lot of paperwork to do."

"Um… I don't mean to be rude but… When do I get to meet the real you?"

The Sandaime seemed surprised at the question, "The… real me?"

The boy nodded quickly, "Yeah. I mean… you're just a Kage Bunshin, right?"

"I'm not a Kage Bunshin. What gave you that idea?"

The boy seemed slightly uncertain, but continued talking, "It's just that… if _I_ had to do that much paperwork," he said, gesturing at the hydra infestation atop the Hokage's desk, "There's no way I would do it on my own. I'd just pop out a bunch of Kage Bunshin to do it for me."

The Sandaime froze for a second, before looking up, "Arashi-kun, please repeat that last statement."

"If I had to do that much paperwork," Naruto repeated slowly, "I'd just pop out a bunch of Kage Bunshin and make them do it for me."

The Sandaime looked down for a second, expression hidden, before looking up again, a kind, grandfatherly look on his face.

"Arashi-kun, Minato-kun, Tsunade-chan. You may leave now. Inu, Neko, Kuma. Please make sure that I have some privacy for the next hour or so." Sarutobi said with a smile that was just _slightly_ too wide to be considered sane.

XXX

For the next hour that day, a strange noise from the Hokage's office, which sounded suspiciously like someone repeatedly ramming his head against a desk, was heard all over Konohagakure no Sato.

**ORIGINAL A/N: Sorry for the slight delay in this chapter's publishing. I have plenty of excu-**_**reasons**_** for it, but I suspect that none of you really want to hear me monologue about them.**

**A few of you have probably started to notice at this point that the narration is seemingly switching at random between 'Naruto' and 'Arashi'. This is intentional. I'm writing this story from a second-person perspective, so when Naruto becomes the main focus character, I start to refer to him as 'Naruto', and when the perspective shifts to someone else, I switch to 'Arashi'. Remember that Naruto has been referring to himself as 'Naruto' for seventeen years, and that he has only chosen 'Arashi' as his new name for around two days. He's not going to be able to change his perception of himself and his name **_**that**_** quickly.**

**I actually have a little writing device planned out with this in mind. All I will say is, that in future chapters, pay attention to when Naruto begins referring to himself as 'Arashi' rather than 'Naruto'.**

**Was there anything else? AH! Yeah, the whole 'Kiiroi-niisan' thing. Just a note, but 'Kiiroi' means 'Yellow' as in 'Yellow Flash', geddit?**

**Also, I've been really sleepy while typing this, so I apologize for any drop in quality in advance.**

**Anyways, I'm too tired to really think of anything else to say, so I I'll leave you with my heartfelt plea to FEED ME REVIEWS!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5: The Bloody Habanero

**EDIT A/N: Here's the last of the original chapters! I'll be getting chapter 6 out soon enough.**

**The Brothers Namikaze**

**Chapter 5: The Bloody Habanero**

After the meeting with the Hokage had been concluded, Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto and his new brother were walking home, both unsure of what to talk about. It was Minato who finally broke the silence.

"Ne, Arashi. How do you know about the kage bunshin no jutsu? It's not a very basic technique after all."

Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "Well, remember how jiji said that I already know one ninjutsu? That was it."

"The one ninjutsu you know is a B-rank, jounin-level technique?" Minato asked, sounding slightly incredulous.

"Yup! I'm awesome, right niisan? I'll be the best ninja ever!" Naruto said, once again channeling his eight-year-old self.

Minato laughed slightly, "Yeah, you'll be a great ninja, no doubt," the older blonde said, smiling at his brother's antics. "But still, I have a question," he said, his face suddenly growing serious.

"Yes?" Naruto asked slightly apprehensive.

"Why did you tell Sarutobi-sama about the trick to doing paperwork, Arashi?" When he saw Naruto's quizzical look, Minato elaborated, "Well, the thing is, Otouto, from what you've told me about yourself, you're a first-rate prankster, right?"

"Yes, I am." Naruto said, wondering where this was going.

"Well, the thing is, wouldn't it have been a rather funny prank to hang the secret of doing paperwork over Sarutobi-sama's head, and make him do whatever you wanted for a bit?" Minato continued.

Naruto's expression grew pensive, "Niisan, let me ask you a question. The Hokage is supposed to be the most powerful ninja and the best leader in all of Konoha, right?"

Minato nodded in confirmation.

"Well, all really powerful ninjas are supposed to have strong bodies and strong minds, right?" Naruto continued.

Minato once again nodded his assent.

"Then why was Sarutobi-sama developing a gut?" Naruto asked calmly.

Minato's face flooded with comprehension, "I see, you think that, because he has constantly been doing paperwork, he has also been neglecting his training."

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, and because of that, the Hokage, who is the strongest ninja in the village, has been growing weaker due to lack of physical work."

Minato continued the thought, "And because the Hokage is growing weaker…"

"Then the village is growing weaker. I wasn't lying when I said that I loved Konoha, niisan, even if I haven't ever been here before today. I really want the village to be strong," Naruto said with a bright smile on his face.

The older blonde looked at his brother quietly, examining him for any hint of mistruth in his expression, then, seemingly satisfied with his answer, beamed at him.

The pride that he saw in Minato's eyes made that moment the best that Naruto had ever experienced in his life.

XXX

Namikaze Minato was currently a very annoyed man.

The day after their first meeting, the blonde man and his younger brother had gone to a nearby store to purchase some clothes for Arashi, after realizing that none of the older brother's clothes would fit the younger.

Which was why Minato was now standing right outside of a clothing store in the middle of Konohagakure no Sato, where a very animated Arashi was extolling all of the virtues and greatness of the color orange and trying to make Minato purchase several sets of a same-colored… abomination of a jumpsuit for regular clothing.

Rubbing the bridge of his nose in exasperation, Minato looked down at the face of his brother and spoke, abruptly cutting Arashi off in the middle of his monologue, "No."

"B-but Kiiroi-niisan, why?" the younger blonde, who looked like he was about to burst into tears asked pitifully.

"Look at that abomination!" Minato exclaimed, wildly gesticulating at said abomination, "It looks horrifying! There's no way in _hell_ that I'm going to let you embarrass yourself by letting you wear that… that… _thing_ in public!"

"What do you mean horrifying? It looks awesome, niisan!"

Minato took a second to clear out his ears at _that_ statement before deciding to approach the issue from a different angle.

"Otouto, you want to be a shinobi right?" the younger blonde nodded his head up and down furiously, "Then I will tell you now that that jumpsuit is _not_ acceptable ninja attire. Anyone who wore that thing would stick out like a sore thumb in a crowd," Minato continued.

"So?" The little boy asked innocently.

_Really, was that intelligence that I thought I saw in him yesterday an illusion?_ the older brother thought, while palming his face exasperatedly.

Minato decided to explain, "Shinobi are supposed to be _discreet_, baka-otouto. How in the world are you supposed to be discreet when you stick out like that in a crowd?"

Arashi stroked his chin thoughtfully, but before he was able to respond, the bickering brothers were interrupted.

"Ah! Min-kun!" a loud voice called. "How have you been?"

Sighing, Minato turned around and was treated to a shock of beautiful red hair, which framed the face of an equally beautiful woman. "I'm fine Kushina, how about you?"

"I'm doing great!" Uzumaki Kushina exclaimed enthusiastically.

Minato couldn't help the small smile that rose to his lips at the sight of her.

Uzumaki Kushina, the Whirlpool Princess, had been Minato's closest friend for the past six years, ever since he had successfully tracked down and rescued her from a group of Kumo shinobi who had kidnapped her during the Second Shinobi World War. Before that point, Kushina had never really paid much attention to him, but after that, she and he had become fast friends.

To be completely honest, Minato actually had a slight crush on the woman.

Though Kushina _did_ act kind of weird sometimes. For example, whenever Minato had tried to introduce any female friends of his to her, she always seemed to become irritable and cranky for some reason. And then sometimes, he would make a completely innocent comment, and her face would go as red as her hair…

_Meh, that can wait for later,_ Minato thought, banishing his speculations to back of his mind.

"Ah, yes," Minato said, looking back to his brother, "Arashi, meet Uzumaki Kushina."

XXX

"Arashi, meet Uzumaki Kushina."

Uzumaki Kushina.

Uzumaki.

Naruto froze.

_Uzumaki, the name I bore for sixteen years. Is this person… maybe…_

The boy looked closely at the woman he thought _might_ be his mother.

_Hmm… I used to look a lot like dad, even before I came back, but I can definitely see some similarities in facial structure and other small, physical features between her and myself, but that's not enough proof._

His face was then drawn to examine Kushina's expression. The woman was currently looking at Naruto's brother out of the corner of her eye.

_Is that… a blush on her face? Maybe she really is… But still, even if she does have a crush on niisan, from what ero-sennin told me, half the women in the village had one on him at around this time. Nope, still not enough proof._

Then he looked at his brother.

_Niisan's blushing too? Hmm… but I'm still not convinced…_

Then, Kushina spoke.

"Ah, Arashi-kun, nice to meet you –ttebane!"

-ttebane.

Dattebane.

_Dattebayo._

_Okay, maternal status: confirmed._

Naruto was then broken out of his thoughts and speculations by Minato's firm voice.

"Arashi. Introduce yourself."

Blinking rapidly, Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "Ah, sorry about that Kushina-san. My name is Namikaze Arashi! Nice to meet you too!" he said enthusiastically.

XXX

Uzumaki Kushina blinked.

_Namikaze… Arashi? Why does he have the same last name as Min-kun?_

Kushina was very confused, but after a moment, looked at the boy in front of her in greater detail, taking in the blonde hair that was _just_ the same shade as Minato's, the blue eyes that seemed to carry _just_ the same spirit as Minato's, the way he rubbed the back of his head, _just_ the same way that Minato did…

_They're related for sure!_

Now, the only question was, what relation did this boy have to Minato?

_I know that the kid isn't Min-kun's dad, I know that he doesn't have any siblings, so the only possibility is… his son. Minato has a _son_._

This took a few moments to sink in for Kushina before she turned to the older blonde with a jealous glare on her face. "Who's the mother?" she asked angrily, looking for the name of the woman who had _dared_ to steal _her_ Min-kun away from her.

Minato tilted his head to one side cluelessly, "Mother? You already know all about her, Kushi-chan!"

_Oh? So I already _know_ her do I? Well, once I figure out who she is there will be _hell_ to pay. But for now I'll have to deal with dear old _Min-kun_._

Kushina felt an aura of righteous anger spread out behind her as her hair parted into nine separate locks, and she began to stalk closer to Minato to take her rage out on him, a voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Ano, Kiiroi-niisan, Kushina-neesan is kind of scary…" the little boy said innocently while hiding behind his brother.

Kushina abruptly stopped in her tracks. _Niisan? That would mean that he's his brother, but-_

"Ah, don't worry," Minato said with a smile, "she may be really scary," a metaphorical arrow pierced Kushina's heart, "but she's actually a really nice person once you get to know her!" The red-haired woman's spirits soared once again.

Shaking off her feelings, Kushina asked, "Minato. Why didn't you ever tell me that you had a little brother?". She felt slightly betrayed that her close friend had not seen fit to inform her of this relatively _important_ detail.

"Ah," Minato said scratching his head sheepishly, as Kushina once again confirmed how _similar_ the action looked to the one his brother performed, "Well, I would have, but I only found out about Arashi's existence yesterday from Tsunade-sama."

Kushina felt herself relax completely. _So he didn't not tell me because of some sort of lack of trust._

Then the full force of what Minato had said came crashing down on her head.

"EEEEEHHHHH! You only just found out? What happened? And Tsunade-sama's back?"

Minato sighed slightly before looking up at her, smiling, "Why don't you come with us to get something to eat? I'll tell you everything there."

XXX

Naruto was currently sitting in front of the recently-opened Ichiraku ramen stand in the middle of Konohagakure no Sato.

While he was consuming copious amounts of the salty noodle broth in front of him, Naruto took the opportunity to observe his mother and father's interaction, as Minato explained the circumstances of his first meeting with 'Arashi.'

While at first glance, it didn't seem like anything other than a small conversation between friends, the younger blonde could see some suspicious signs. For example, whenever Minato made a joke, Kushina would laugh just a bit _too_ hard, and when Kushina wiped Minato's face off with a napkin, his niisan blushed a _little_ too red for it to be just embarassment.

_Gods, it's so obvious that they like each other that it's almost sickening. Seriously mom, dad, how can you both be so dense? Really, if I hadn't made that comment and rectified that misunderstanding that Kushina had about me being niisan's son, that situation would have turned out really badly. You two kind of remind me of…_

… _of me and Hinata._

_Hinata… _Naruto thought back for a moment to the Hyuuga girl's declaration that she loved him, right before Pain had killed her, and wondered.

How did he feel about her? In hindsight, the girl's crush had been so _obvious_. The way she had always blushed and fainted in his presence, the way she would go completely beet red at (what he thought) was the most innocuous comment…

_I was such an idiot to never have noticed, but after all, I was too focused on pursuing Sakura-chan to ever look at Hinata, wasn't I?_ Naruto thought to himself, a tad bitterly.

_Sakura-chan…_

Then Naruto thought back to his friends and precious people back in _his_ Konoha in _his_ time: Team 8, Team 10, Team Gai…

Team 7.

Sakura.

_Sasuke_.

_That's right… none of them have even been born yet…_

And then, a sudden chilling thought hit Naruto.

_What if… what if because of my interference, my friends never are born? What if my mere presence here in this timeline makes it so that none of them will ever exist now, because completely different people will be born in their places?_

The more he thought about it, the more that Naruto became dejected. After all, it was possible that his very _existence_ had thoroughly erased his friends' to a point beyond even death!

But then, he was broken out of _that_ particularly bad vein of thought by his father's voice.

"Arashi, are you all right? You haven't spoken at all during this entire meal," Minato said worriedly.

Adopting a bright, if fake, smile on his face, Naruto spoke up, "O-oh, it's nothing, Kiiroi-niisan! I was just thinking!"

Minato still looked worried, "What about?"

_Crap! Need to redirect!_ Naruto thought frantically, before a perfect idea crossed his mind. Inwardly, the little prankster smiled evilly.

"I was just wondering," the eight-year-old said, his face the picture of innocence, "Kushina-neesan, are you Kiiroi-niisan's girlfriend?"

He was treated to the (absolutely _hilarious_) sight of his mother spit-taking, then going completely red alongside his father, as both of them looked at him incredulously. Naruto tried valiantly not to laugh, but simply couldn't hold himself back and began to giggle, then guffaw at their reactions to his comment. "Ahaha! Kiiroi-niisan! You should- hehe- look in a mirror right now! The expression on your face-" Naruto couldn't hold himself back and laughed hysterically at his embarrassed parents.

Minato palmed his face, "Haaaah… brat," then he smiled evilly, "You'll pay for that later, you know?"

Naruto abruptly stopped laughing. He did not like that expression. It gave him a _very_ bad feeling, "Ano, Kiiroi-niisan, what do you mean by that?" he asked nervously.

"Nothing," his brother said, with the same innocent expression that had been on Naruto's face a few moments before, "It's just that, as your brother, it's up to me to give you training in order to… adequately… prepare you for the life of a shinobi, right?"

At this, Kushina burst out into laughter of her own. When she saw Naruto's expression of confusion, she elaborated, "Kid," she said between her giggles, "When your brother taught in the academy around four years ago, he got several nicknames."

"Nicknames?" Naruto asked, still not understanding.

"Yes. The two most prominent of them were the oni-sensei, and the slave-driver" Kushina elaborated, "No student of his ever came out of his training without some form of trauma from his insane training methods." Naruto's expression of fearful comprehension kicked the woman off into an even greater fit of giggles.

"Neh, niisan, you won't train me _that_ hard, will you?" the little boy asked, voice trembling.

"Hmmm… well, no," Naruto felt his heart soar with hope, "I'll be training you even harder!" and then it abruptly came crashing back down. "After all, as your brother, it's my job to make sure that you are perfectly prepared for the life that you are planning on getting into. I would _never_ be able to forgive myself if anything happened to you out during a mission that I could have prepared you for!" The man's enthusiastic tone contradicted the rather somber subject matter he was discussing.

"You just want an excuse to have revenge on me for that comment don't you!" Naruto accused, wildly pointing his finger at the monster he had so unwittingly released.

"Hmm… Well that's kind of mean, don't you think Kushina? You don't think I would do something as low as using this opportunity to train my _beloved_ otouto as a means of revenge, do you?" Minato asked, another evil grin affixed to his face.

"Oh no, of course not! You're much too nice for that Min-kun! In fact, your generosity and love for your _beloved_ otouto has inspired me as well! I think I will also aid with his punis- I mean training!" Kushina said, with an equally evil smile on her face.

"Liar!" Naruto said, terrified, "You were just about to say 'punishment' there, weren't you!"

Minato and Kushina only laughed at the poor, doomed boy.

XXX

A little while after that, Namikaze Minato was a very happy man.

Just yesterday, he had found out that he still had living family. While the blonde man had been nervous at first, he found his younger brother to be a fun kid to be around, who also had a great sense of humor. With his exuberant and outgoing personality, Arashi was an honestly likable boy. It was actually rather amazing how quickly the awkward phase in their interactions that Minato had expected had passed, but after just one day, he found the two of them acting like actual brothers who had been together for years! This made him very happy.

Then, today he got to see Kushina again! No matter what happened, the red-haired woman's fiery spirit always left him with a smile on his face. Though she _had_ seemed to get a bit… angry back there for a short while.

_I wonder why that happened?_ Minato thought, _Ah well, I'll contemplate it later._

The three of them were done eating, so Minato spoke, "It was good to see you Kushina. Let's talk later, all right?"

"Okay, see you later Min-kun, Arashi-chan!" Kushina said enthusiastically.

Minato was currently on cloud nine.

_There's nothing that could make this day go bad for me_, Minato thought with a happy grin. He was feeling really invigorated today. He could do anything! He-

"Bye bye, Tomato-neechan!" Arashi said with a smile on his face.

-grabbed his brother and got the hell out of there so quickly that one would think that he had already perfected his Hiraishin no jutsu.

As he frantically ran away, cursing his foolish otouto's idiocy, Minato heard an angry roar in the distance, "WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME, YOU LITTLE BRAT? !"

**ORIGINAL A/N: Yeah, this chapter is about 80% cracky humor, 10% serious and angsty material, and 10% plot development.**

**Honestly, I'm a bit dissatisfied with the final result, since a lot of the scenes here seemed to sound a lot better in my head than when I put them down on paper.**

**Kushina's 'clingy jealous girl' reaction when she, rather ironically, thinks that Arashi is Minato's son, which he actually isn't, but actually is, (geddit?) felt kind of overdone, but I really had no idea on how else to write it. Yeah, not too good with romance over here…**

**What I was trying to portray throughout this chapter were the similarities Naruto has with Minato. In canon, the lion's share of Naruto's personality is gained from his mother, but what I wanted to show here was that Naruto has also inherited a lot of smaller things, such as mannerisms (The whole 'scratching the back of the head' thing that both Naruto and Minato do) and an utter obliviousness to romance (As shown by the aforementioned 'clingy jealous girl' scene) from his dad.**

**I added in that scene at the beginning to show that this version of Naruto is a bit smarter than his canon counterpart, and to actually look at the serious consequences of the 'kage bunshin do paperwork' plot device. I honestly feel that this plot device is rather neglected by many fanfic authors who reduce it to a one-time cheap gag, and I wanted to take a look at the realistic consequences of the village's leader suddenly being able to accomplish around ten times the amount of work he was originally able to. Suffice to say, Sarutobi is going to be taking a **_**much**_** more active role in Konoha's affairs in the future.**

**I think that a few of the characters here were acting a bit OOC, but rest assured, I'll have that fixed in future chapters.**

**Anyways, I'm probably not going to be able to write anything else for a while, now that finals are starting up. And after that I'm taking extra classes over the summer so my update speed is going to be severely slowed. Sorry about that guys!**

**Right, one other thing. My response to this question from 'curious reviewer':**

"i like your story and the plot...it's quite unique...not the usual time travel...um i just wonder...if Ino's father is around 15, shouldn't Kakashi's generation be around 7 since their gap is around 8 years...well that is if their age is canon with anime/manga...if not...well it's understandable if their age is like that..."

**Okay, so Narutopedia lists both Inoichi and Chouza's ages as 38, without any sort of mark about **_**when**_** they are 38 years old. However, Shikaku's article lists his age as 38 in Part I and 41 in Part II. I'm actually going with the interpretation that Inoichi, Chouza and Shikaku are all 41 in Part II (since they were all on the same genin team, and it would be logical for them all to be the same age), and since Naruto was blasted back 26 years, 41 – 26 = 15 years old. **

**Oh yeah! Some people might have noticed that Naruto is slowly mixing up, and using the words 'father' and 'brother' interchangeably in this chapter when referring to Minato. This is supposed to show how Naruto is slowly falling more and more into his role as Minato's brother and is starting to genuinely think of the man as such.**

**On a final note, I shall once again remind you to review after reading! Really guys, getting reviews honestly motivates me to keep writing. So please, just spend a minute writing something, even if it's as small as just telling me that you really enjoyed the chapter. As an author, I honestly appreciate each and every review that you guys write, and getting more motivates me to get the next chapter out sooner!**

**Anyways, signing out! See you next chapter, my loyal minio- I mean readers!**


	6. Interlude: Power of the Shodai

**A/N: Yay! The first chapter which is not just a repost of previous chapters! Except that it's not really a chapter, it's an interlude! Double Yay!**

**The Brothers Namikaze**

**Interlude: Power of the Shodai**

A week and a half before Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto's ignominious arrival in the past, a certain ANBU squad was dispatched by order of the Sandaime Hokage in order to investigate the disappearances of thirty infants from an orphanage in Konohagakure no Sato.

The initial investigation had been frustrating, to say the least. The kidnappers were perfect in their execution. They had easily disposed of the civilian caretaker looking after the children, and then had proceeded to snatch the children from their cradles and disappear without a trace. It was, in every way, the perfect crime, as the kidnappers left no evidence of their identities in the aftermath.

After around a week and three days of investigation, the members of the squadron were completely stumped. They literally could find _nothing_ relating to the identities of the kidnappers. At this point, they were about to call off the whole investigation due to lack of evidence.

But then, they caught a lucky break.

An identical crime had occurred in another orphanage halfway across the village. Luckily, this time, the abductors had not disposed of the caretaker quite as adequately as in the previous abduction.

Barely alive after being found by one of her peers, the woman had been rushed to the emergency treatment ward in the hospital. While the her life unfortunately could not be saved, the squad had had enough time to get a Yamanaka into the hospital room in order to delve into her memories in order to see the face of one of the kidnappers.

After that, it had been a relatively simple matter to identify the man, knock him out, and send him to T&I.

The man, who was really nothing more than a common shopkeeper, suspiciously enough, had continued to insist that he had nothing to do with the mass kidnapping. After two hours of prolonged torture, the head interrogator had become suspicious, and brought in a Yamanaka to test whether he was telling the truth.

What the blonde-haired shinobi had discovered within the man's psyche had been enough to knock him out for nearly one hour. When he finally awakened, the poor mindwalker had been a blubbering mess, only able to articulate a few syllables, imparting that the man whom he was interrogating, the shopkeeper, had had entire portions of his memories shattered and suppressed with forbidden techniques. The sheer toll of _looking _at how unnaturally the civilian's mind had been twisted had nearly traumatized the man.

With his last breath before he passed out, the shinobi had given the ANBU captain the location of the abandoned building to which the babies had been delivered for an unknown purpose.

Which was why, in the early morning of Namikaze Arashi's arrival in Kononagakure no Sato, Kuma, the captain of the squad, now stood at a distance from a large, drab, and completely nondescript building on the outskirts of Konoha, with his faceless group of three shinobi behind him, scanning it for any hint of opposition.

_The building doesn't seem guarded_, Kuma thought to himself, _which either means that the kidnapped orphans were transferred from here to somewhere else, or that the person responsible for this has already finished what he was planning on doing with the infants and left._

Turning to a member of his squad, Kuma spoke, "Chouchou, scan the building, and make sure that there are no hostiles present."

Nodding quietly, the Hyuuga ANBU activated her Byakugan and looked into the building, using her clan's doujutsu to scan the hallways for any hint of life. Her search complete, she looked back at the captain and nodded, "The building is secure, sir. No hostiles present."

Kuma acknowledged her with a small tilt of his head and spoke up, "Alright squad, form up. We'll split into two groups of two in order to cover ground inside the building more effectively. I will lead group one. Hitsuji you're with me," the man with the sheep mask acknowledged his superior's order with a nod, "Kaba, you and Chouchou are group two. Kaba is in command." The butterfly and hippopotamus-masked ANBU both inclined their heads slightly.

The bear-masked shinobi continued, "Group one will take the front entrance, and group two will take the back." The members of the squad all consented nonverbally.

"All right then," Kuma said, signaling to his squad, "move out."

XXX

Kuma and Hitsuji slowly moved through the building.

The atmosphere of the place was stifling. The narrow and angular halls were all terrifyingly small, with very little room to maneuver, which left the two ANBU acutely aware that an enemy would easily be able to take them both out if they ambushed them at this time.

After all, while a Hyuuga's byakugan was nearly foolproof in this sort of situation, an ANBU always expected and prepared for the unexpected. To do otherwise in their dangerous profession would be the height of foolishness, and foolish ANBU often have much-reduced lifespans.

As Kuma and Hitsuji continued down the hall they were currently in, they came upon a door. Kuma nodded to his subordinate who set up an explosive tag on the knob. The two then retreated to a safe distance, and Kuma signalled his subordinate.

Hitsuji then activated the tag, blowing the door open.

The two ANBU darted into the room under the smoke cover caused by the explosion, preparing for any enemies lying in wait. After no attacks came, the two began to relax.

As the tension slowly faded from their bodies, the two men slowly began to notice that they were in a room filled with overturned tables with papers strewn all over the floor.

Someone_ obviously left in a hurry_, Kuma thought to himself.

Looking more closely at one of the still-upright tables in the dim lighting, Kuma was able to make out a small oddly shaped… _tree_ lying on top of it.

_That's strange_, Kuma observed, _there doesn't appear to be any soil around, or anywhere where it could have grown, and judging from its shape, it obviously wasn't uprooted after being grown, so where did it come from? And why is there a tree here anyways?_

"Sir," Hitsuji spoke up, cutting off Kuma's thoughts, "I-I think you'll want to see this." The junior ANBU somehow sounded both terrified and disgusted at the same time.

Looking up, Kuma observed that the man was holding one of the many papers spread out on the ground around the room. Walking over to Hitsuji, the senior ANBU snatched the paper from the man's hand and began reading.

_Details on the Implementation of Shodai's Cells into Infants_, the title read.

Oh.

Oh _god_.

Suddenly, that small tree that Kuma had just been examining seemed a _lot_ less innocent than it had been a moment before.

As he continued reading, the ANBU captain felt his horror growing each and every second.

The sheet described in _excruciating_ detail exactly how the author had injected the Shodai's cells into a group of babies, and observed the effects that they had on their bodies. According to the notes, one of the test subjects had literally been _torn apart_ after the Mokuton ran out of control within his body.

"My _god_," Kuma said as he fought back the bile rising up from his throat, "this sick bastard was _experimenting_ on them! _Harvesting_ them! Newborn _infants_!"

As an ANBU, Kuma was used to the sight of death. ANBU, after all, were given the worst and most dangerous jobs in the entire village: theft, arson, blackmail, assassination. No job was too horrible for most of them. But this was different:

Whenever an ANBU worked, they killed for a purpose. After all, they were Shinobi, not mass-murderers, and leaving a trail of civilian bodies was always a sure way to get one's village a bad reputation.

What had happened here, it was _murder_. No, it was _worse_ than a murder! It was an utterly pointless slaughter of innocent _babies_!

_What sort of a _monster_ does something like this?_ Kuma questioned himself, horrified.

In any case though, it looked like they had discovered what happened to the kidnapped children.

XXX

A few minutes afterwards, Kuma had ordered Hitsuji to gather up all of the papers on the ground to be taken back to the Intelligence division. The ram-masked shinobi had wanted to simply burn the data on the spot, until his superior ordered him to stand down, then pointed out that the papers were evidence that could be used to find the identity of the culprit.

In the meanwhile, Kuma had been contacting the rest of the team using his radio, ordering them to report to his location ASAP.

While he was waiting for the rest of his squad to arrive, the bear-masked ANBU busied himself by searching the room for anything useful.

As he scanned the walls for any sort of hidden entrance, the bear-masked ANBU suddenly heard a sharp sound.

The wail of an infant.

Kuma's head shot in the direction from which the sound came, and he immediately ran over, searching frantically searching for any sign of the child.

Then he heard it again, and spun around, noticing how the sound came from underneath a nearby table.

Frantically, Kuma dropped to his knees, and saw the child lying on the ground, bawling its eyes out. Kuma quickly pulled the baby out from underneath the table, and looked over its condition.

The infant was obviously barely alive, its small lips were blue and it (_No, __**he**_, Kuma noted absently) was barely breathing.

"Hitsuji!" the man snapped, "I'm getting this child back to Konoha immediately! Tell Kaba that he's in charge of the investigation when he arrives!" Without waiting for his subordinate's reply, the bear-masked shinobi sprinted out of the room.

XXX

After they had turned in the papers they had found in the building the previous day to the Intelligence division, the four ANBU had returned to headquarters and had taken a short period of time composing their reports. The next day, the Sandaime had called them to his office after reviewing their reports and asked for more details on what they had discovered.

Seeing Kuma's squad enter the room, the Hokage nodded gravely.

"I have reviewed your reports of the incident, and am curious about one thing."

"Yes, Sandaime-sama?"

"In your report, you mentioned something about a child that you discovered in the lab. How is he doing?" Sarutobi asked while puffing on his pipe.

"His condition is stable sir, despite the condition he was found in. We have confirmed that this is due to the rejuvenating effects that the Shodai's cells have had on his young body. We have also concluded that it is quite likely that the boy has inherited Senju-sama's Mokuton abilities." Kuma said.

The Sandaime rubbed the bridge of his nose in annoyance, _First Minato's younger brother shows up, and now something like this happens?_ He thought to himself exasperatedly.

Sitting back, the God of Shinobi contemplated his next decision carefully. On one hand, the child could prove to be an _incredible_ asset to the village if he had inherited the First Hokage's mokuton abilities. At the same time though, his very existence was a massive headache, as he could prove to be an equally incredible asset if one of Konoha's enemies learned of his existence. Killing the baby was out of the question, and as much as Sarutobi would have liked to give him a normal life, his special abilities immediately ruled out that course of action. That left only one thing that he could do…

With a sigh, the man sat up straight, "From this point onwards, the child's existence in an S-ranked secret. He will be raised discreetly within the ANBU headquarters and will be trained as a shinobi and in the use of Hashirama-sensei's Mokuton techniques. When he is ready, we will enroll him as a fourth-year student in the Academy, and accelerate his graduation as much as possible so that we can keep his unique abilities out of the spotlight. After graduation, he will be placed under the personal jurisdiction of an ANBU tutor." Sarutobi said.

"Very well," Kuma nodded, then continued, "But what shall we call him?"

Sarutobi stroked his chin for a moment in thought. Then he stood up.

"From now onwards," the Sandaime declared, "the boy will be known by the codename 'Tenzo'."

XXX

Orochimaru of the _Densetsu no Sannin_ cursed as he sat down in his lab. The experiments had been going to _well_! Just a few more… _trials_, and he was sure that he would have been able to find how to integrate the Mokuton into the body of a normal human! After that it would have been a rather simple matter to implant the cells into the body of one of the members of _that_ clan, and then…

And then the Hebi-Sannin would have been one step closer to his goal of learning all ninjutsu ever created.

But of course that damn civilian just _had_ to be captured right before he had completed his research! And now, he was left with nothing, having been forced to leave the lion's share of his notes and observations behind when he had frantically packed up his equipment and fled the building.

And on top of that, after two identical kidnappings taking place within two weeks of each other, it would take a miracle at this point for the Hebi-sannin to get his hands on some more… adequate… test subjects.

As he sat back in frustration, the Snake thought back to the beginning of his ambition.

Orochimaru had been obsessed with learning ninjutsu for as long as he could remember. As a young child, he had been hailed as a genius, courtesy to his perfect scores in the academy, and his constant obsession with _learning_. When he had graduated, he had been assigned to a three-man team personally taught by the Sandaime Hokage.

Yet, despite his accomplishments, and no matter how hard he worked, Orochimaru was always faced with the realization that he was slowly running out of time. After all, death catches up to all mortal men, and Orochimaru was no exception to this rule.

For a while, though, the young Orochimaru had done his best to avoid thinking along those lines. He had instead plunged himself into his studies, voraciously devouring all of the jutsu scrolls he could get his hands on. He practiced and trained day and night, trying to discover and learn all the ninjutsu he could get his hands on.

But it was never enough.

All of that had changed with the deaths of his parents.

Orochimaru himself was no stranger to death. He was a shinobi after all, and a very skilled one at that. And after all, every skilled shinobi was expected to kill at some point during his or her career. The Hebi-Sannin saw death every day on the battlefield, when he stole the life from faceless enemy shinobi, splattering the ground with their blood. He saw it in the faces of his nameless allies when they were caught in enemy ambushes, their bodies stilling forever in death's cold embrace.

Yet none of the deaths of faceless and nameless enemies and allies on the battlefield had ever caused as much of an impact as the loss of the two people closest to him.

As Orochimaru had gone to visit their graves the day after the funeral, he had found the shedded skin of a White Snake lying upon their graves.

It was at this point that he finally realized the futility of his goals. As a mortal human, he would never be able to accomplish his greatest ambition.

And so, the Hebi-sannin decided that, in order to learn all ninjutsu ever created, he would have to stop being a mortal human.

It was on his quest for immortality that Orochimaru discovered the legend of the Sage of the Six Paths.

It was a simple tome that he had checked out from the library on a whim. But what the Snake had found in there changed everything.

The legend itself was fantastical. After all, a _ten_-tailed bijuu? Sealed on the _moon_? What person in their right mind would believe in something like that?

However, while the legend itself seemed to be a simple story, one aspect had drawn the Hebi-sannin's full attention: the description of the Sage's doujutsu.

The kekkei genkai just seemed _too_ good to be true. After all, what sort of bloodline allowed a person to learn _all_ of the elemental affinities, and in addition to that, allowed the wielder to _control a bijuu_, a monster made of _pure chakra_? Orochimaru was about ready to file the story away and laugh it off after finishing it before moving on to some other form of, doubtlessly more _productive_, research.

Until he had read the short chapter just near the end of the text.

It was stated that the Sage had borne two children. The first was the progenitor of the Uchiha clan, and had inherited the Sage's 'power', while the second, the progenitor of the Senju clan, had inherited the Sage's 'soul'.

What had piqued Orochimaru's interest was the association he had drawn between the legend of the Sage, and a more recent legend, of an epic battle in the Valley of the End, between Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama, a legend in which both of the main players were able to _control_ the Kyuubi no Youko, a bijuu of unparalleled power, in the same manner that the Sage was able to control the Juubi.

And suddenly, what had seemed to be a mere fantastical legend didn't seem to be so fantastical any longer.

From that point onwards, Orochimaru had worked tirelessly to find a way to implant the Mokuton kekkei genkai into a member of the Uchiha clan and thus, by extension, reunite the Sage's 'soul' with his 'power'.

And once the process was complete, the Hebi-Sannin would gain the power to learn all ninjutsu ever created, and fulfill his lifelong ambition. He would gain the power of the Doujutsu of the Gods.

He would gain the power of the Rinnegan.

**A/N: Yeah, a few things about this chapter.**

**The first half of the chapter primarily deals with Yamato's origins. I just wanted to write that out since it would solve some issues that showed up later in the plot.**

**Second, the whole 'Orochimaru wants the Rinnegan' thing. This was something that I pieced together after Madara was introduced into the story.**

**First, Orochimaru's motivation for wanting something like the Rinnegan seems really obvious in hindsight. After all, a doujutsu that makes learning **_**all**_** ninjutsu a **_**walk in the park**_**? I can almost picture the bastard looking at Nagato's (Or rather, the Deva Path's) face and simultaneously drooling while contemplating whether or not to screw it all and attack him, despite knowing how outmatched he was.**

**However, the main point that convinced me of Orochimaru's motivation was his insistence on **_**possessing**_** Sasuke. That was always one thing that always kind of irked me in the storyline. After all, if Orochimaru was only after Sasuke's eyes, why didn't he simply kill him and gouge them out as soon as the kid joined him? It would have been far less risky than actually **_**training**_** someone who knew that he had every intention of taking over his body in a few years' time.**

**Eventually, I concluded that it was because he knew, through his experiments on Danzo (which gave the old cripple the Mokuton and the Sharingarm), that an **_**implanted**_** Sharingan combined with Mokuton would not give him the Rinnegan (since Danzo did not have the Rinnegan, despite having both of the other Kekkei Genkai). That was why Orochimaru planned on taking Sasuke's body. He wanted to integrate the Mokuton into it in order to unlock the Rinnegan, and thus take a major step along the path to learning all ninjutsu ever created.**

**Also, the whole 'Sharingan and Mokuton combine to make Rinnegan' thing, it's pretty much covered in canon with Madara. He has both the Sharingan and the Mokuton, so he unlocked the Rinnegan, since he is the symbolic combination of the Sage's 'power' and his 'soul'.**

**It also explains Kabuto's obsession with turning Sasuke into his test subject in recent chapters of the manga: he knows that if he combines the Mokuton with Sasuke's body, then integrates Sasuke's body into himself using that weird-ass jutsu of his, then he will effectively gain the power of the Rinnegan.**

**Anyways, about these interludes: I'm primarily going to be using them to discuss major events in the story which don't really involve the main characters of the fic (i.e. Arashi, Minato and Kushina). Expect more, sporadically interspersed throughout the narration.**

**So, on a completely different note, this is basically the first thing I have written in around a month. Has my writing taken any hits, or is it up to par?**

**Also, this is my first attempt at writing a chapter that is almost purely serious, with very few real jokes. Tell me, how was it? Interesting? Fun? Boring as hell? Did I make any major mistakes with story flow? Give me your critique so I can attempt to improve future chapters that are written in this vein. And if you don't feel like writing a long critique, just drop a review anyways! After all, reviews provide me with the motivation to keep writing!**

**Personally, I had a lot of issues with how the chapter flowed, but then again, that may just be me.**

**Anyhow, the next chapter will deal with Naruto's (re)start in the Academy and Minato and Kushina's bonding over the poor little kid's punis- errr… I mean training, not necessarily in that order.**

**Thanks for reading, and see you soon!**

**Signing out.**


	7. Chapter 6: Training From Hell

**A/N: IT'S FINALLY HEEEEEEEEEEEERE!**

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The Brothers Namikaze

Chapter 6: Training From Hell

Standing in the midst of Training Ground 44, also known as the Forest of Death, two weeks after a certain blonde-haired boy's arrival in the village of Konohagakure no Sato, one Namikaze Minato and one Uzumaki Kushina were currently very happy people.

One Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto on the other hand was most certainly _not_.

The reason for this was rather simple: Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto had been sprinting nonstop for the past hour.

"Why," you might ask, "has Naruto been running for such a long period of time?"

The reason, quite simply, was because of steak.

Steak is a truly succulent, chewy and tender meat. High in protein and fat, it is an ideal food for the developing ninja, as it quickly allows one to bulk up and gain muscle. At the same time, in Konohagakure no Sato, steak is considered something of a delicacy, and as such, only the richest civilians and ninja eat it on a regular basis. Interestingly enough, steak has another important property, one that Naruto had never given much thought to before this day in the Forest of Death.

It was one of the favorite foods of man-eating tigers.

The lesson Naruto had learned was one should _not_ screw with Namikaze Minato. Primarily because pissing off the blonde-haired man led to being dropped into the Forest of Death after having one's chakra system sealed off (courtesy of seals painted on one's body the previous night when one was asleep), and having large pieces of steak strapped to one's body. This was most certainly _not _a situation that was conducive to one's future health. Primarily because the Forest of Death was filled to the brim with the aforementioned man-eating tigers.

"KIIROI-NIISAN! TOMATO-NEESAN! YOU DEMOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNSSSS!" the poor little boy screamed as he ran away from a pack of _very_ hungry tigers, all of whom were extremely interested in learning how Naruto-steak tasted.

"Demons? What are you talking about otuoto? This training is absolutely necessary for your future development! After all, I would _never_ be able to forgive myself if something happened during a mission and my _beloved_ little brother was hurt because I didn't train him adequately! Don't you agree Kushina?" contrary to the somber content of his little speech, Minato's face held a wide, sunny and utterly evil smile.

"Yeah!" Kushina exclaimed enthusiastically, her tone of voice only contradicted by the small vein that popped up on her forehead after hearing the name 'tomato' applied to her once again, "Sit still and accept it Arashi-chan! This is the expression of our love for you!"

"LIKE HELL I'M GOING TO SIT STILL, YOU MONSTERS! ! ! !" Naruto screamed as he continued running.

XXX

A few minutes later, Kushina spoke up, "Ne, Min-kun, I think that we've tortured him enough for today."

Minato sent Kushina a rebellious pout, but at one stern glance from the woman, relented.

_It seems that all good things must come to an end eventually…_ the blonde-haired man thought sadly.

XXX

Naruto saw it all out of the corner of his eye.

After Kushina said something to him, Minato had lightly dropped down from the branch he had been sitting on, landing on his feet. He then brushed off the dirt on his pants.

Then he looked up.

And _disappeared_.

_Fast!_

One moment, Minato had been standing around fifty meters away from Naruto, and the next, he was right next to the eight-year-old, gripping him by the scruff of his neck.

"All right boys!" The older brother said, addressing the tigers, "I think we've tort- err… trained our otouto enough for one day don't you think?"

_Why is he talking to the ti- wait a second… _our_ otouto?_

And then in a large poof of smoke, the crowd of lions was suddenly replaced by a crowd of blonde-haired men, all of them wearing identical grins.

"Yes boss!"

And then they all disappeared into individual puffs of smoke.

Absolute rage.

"Kiiroi-niisan," Naruto said, gritting his teeth, "I _hate_ you."

Minato shot his brother a placating, yet, in Naruto's eyes, slightly suspicious, grin, "Well, otouto," he said soothingly, "I do think that that was a bit _too_ much. How about I give you a reward for your hard work?"

Naruto looked up suspiciously, "What kind of reward?" he asked petulantly.

If Minato wanted to cheer him up, then he would need to buy a _lot_ of ramen at this point.

"Well, little brother," Minato said, "Remember that thing you asked me to teach you about the day before yesterday?"

Naruto's expression grew confused, then gleeful, "You mean…" He asked, barely daring to hope.

"Yep! It's time to start learning fuuinjutsu!"

"Yatta!" Naruto exclaimed, while giving a victory pose, "I take what I just said back, Kiiroi-niisan! You're the best brother ever!"

If only he had known what he was getting himself into…

XXX

The first and second week of Naruto's stay in Konoha primarily involved large amounts of bookwork on Naruto's part, with Minato quickly reviewing the material that was taught in the first two years of the academy, so that the two of them could focus on more important matters, namely physical conditioning, during the next two weeks before the new year of school began.

As such, during this time period, the younger blonde had time to think and plan out his own training schedule to get back into shape. Since he had concluded that using Senjutsu would be impractical in his current state, Naruto decided to instead focus on gaining back some of the advantages that Sage Mode granted him, namely the increased strength and speed, through constant physical conditioning. Luckily, it seemed that Minato had agreed with his sentiments in this area, so he would have help there.

At the same time, though, there were certain perks that Senjutsu granted him that he would be unable to replicate, no matter how much training he went through. For example, the ability to sense Natural chakra, and the ability to imbue that same chakra into his Rasenshuriken, and by extension, the ability to both stop the immense cellular damage caused to his arm by the technique, and to throw it, were all lost to him.

In effect, the boy concluded that, without Sage Mode or the Kyuubi and restricted inside an eight-year old body, he was, at best, a high-level Genin or low-level chuunin. While that may have been impressive for a normal eight-year old, Naruto knew all too well that it would not be enough to fulfill his current goals.

What he needed, he decided, was an edge of some sort, something that would give him that extra bit of power that brought him over the line from an above average shinobi to an exceptional one.

Then he had remembered something about his father, which he had learned a long time ago in the Konoha Ninja Academy.

Through the course Third Shinobi World War, Namikaze Minato had become famous for two skills:

The first was his immense speed and near-inhuman reflexes. These two attributes, when combined with his signature Flying Thunder God Technique, allowed Minato to sail across the battlefield, easily slaughtering his way through entire platoons of Iwa Shinobi. Together, they were what granted him the moniker 'Konoha's Yellow Flash', and an SS-rank inside every modern Bingo Book during the course of the war.

The second was his incredible mastery of Fuuinjutsu, and the radical directions in which he took the art of sealing. _This_ was what had given Minato his edge on the battlefield, and had taken him over the edge from merely above-average to truly exceptional.

And then, the answer had suddenly seemed so _simple_. After all, if he was planning on taking his brother's place during the sealing, then of course he would need to have some knowledge of fuuinjutsu! Why not take it a step further and use _that_ as his edge? After all, it had worked out pretty well for Minato!

It had seemed like a great idea, so the next day, Naruto had gone up to his brother and asked him to teach him the sealing arts.

Minato had looked surprised for a second, then he had _grinned_ and enthusiastically agreed to instruct the younger blonde about his area of expertise, but only after they had finished reviewing the material from the Academy.

Naruto had merely assumed that the older blonde's sudden upbeat manner stemmed from his happiness at discovering that his newfound sibling shared his passion for the fuuinjutsu.

Happy at his success, Naruto immediately went out to get some ramen to celebrate.

If he had stayed for a few minutes longer though, he would have seen Minato's _grin_ morph into _laughter_.

Then he would have heard Minato's _laughter_ morph into a full-blown _cackle_.

Poor, poor, Naruto.

XXX

After an hour spent 'learning' the basics of fuuinjutsu, Naruto felt like digging his eyes out with a rusty spoon, and then eating them, along with the spoon.

The reason for this was because, as the Academy textbooks in the original timeline had so _conveniently_ forgot to mention, one of the prerequisites of learning fuuinjutsu was learning calligraphy.

Which meant that Naruto, with his absolutely _atrocious_ handwriting, would have to spend several months relearning how to put ink on paper before he became proficient enough to start creating even the most basic of seals.

The ordeal of learning calligraphy would have been easier if Naruto had been able to use kage bunshin to split the workload. The problem was that he was so physically exhausted after the metaphorical meat-grinder that his brother had put him through that morning that he was now unable to gather up enough chakra to create even a single clone. In addition to this, without the Kyuubi constantly refilling his reserves, the boy realized, to his dismay, that, like normal people, he would need a full night's rest before he regained the energy to use kage bunshin once more.

Of course, that left him with the mind-numbingly boring task of repeatedly copying each Kanji in his current list again and again, all while Minato looked over his shoulder with an absolutely _infuriating_ smirk on his face, while at the same time pointing out every minor error that he made in his writing.

Finally completely fed up, Naruto looked up at his brother and scowled angrily, "Kiiroi-niisan, I take back what I said about you being the best brother ever," At Minato's quirked eyebrow, Naruto continued, "I have realized that you are not my brother. In fact, you are not even human. You are hellspawn, birthed from the deepest pits of Tartarus, sent to this world for the express purpose of making my life a living hell. I currently loathe you so much that, if I could set you on fire by looking at you, every single building on the block would be a smoking pile of rubble at this point."

Minato seemed taken aback at this tirade for a moment, but then burst out laughing.

XXX

_Two weeks later…_

Today was the first day of the Academy.

As expected, Naruto had passed the test that the Sandaime had issued to test his basic knowledge with flying colors.

Now, he realized, while standing in front of the gates, that he was nervous.

Not just nervous, he was practically _trembling_ in his boots with anticipation, fear, and a hundred other emotions all fighting to come to the surface of his mind and express themselves.

It was, as he absently realized, completely irrational. After all, he was _the_ Uzumaki Naruto! Slayer of S-Rank Missing-nin, son of the Fourth Hokage, and the awesomest shinobi every! How could _he_ be nervous to go back to school?

But the sad truth was that he was quaking with anticipation and nerves. After all, this was the moment when it all truly began. After he stepped through these gates, his quest to save his parents would start, and, on some level, he realized that, once he started on his path, he would never be able to step off of it.

He was half-tempted to just turn around and walk away right there. After all, he knew that his path would end in certain death.

_Why should _I_ have to do this?_ A rebellious part of him asked, _Why not someone else? Why should _I_ always be the one to take up other people's burdens? Why should _I_ sacrifice myself for these two people, the two people who consigned me to a life of being hated on the day of my birth?_

_Why am _I_ always the living sacrifice?_

And then, he looked up and saw both Minato and Kushina. The two of them had escorted him to the Academy for his first day.

Both now wore warm, tender and loving smiles on their faces.

_Don't worry,_ their expressions seemed to say, _We will always love you. We will never judge you. We will always be here to protect you._

Together, they were beautiful.

Together, they were brilliant.

Together, they shone like two suns within Naruto's mind.

_Remember what you are fighting for_, that small voice of reason in his head spoke, _Remember _who_ you are fighting for._

Sighing in defeat, Naruto looked down and grinned to himself.

_So what if I'm always a living sacrifice?_ He thought defiantly, _As long as I can protect them, _nothing_ else matters. I _will_ save them, no matter what it takes. Even if…_

_Even if it means that I'll be stuck in the Shinigami's belly for the rest of eternity. Because protecting their smiles will make it _all_ worth it._

And then, Namikaze Arashi looked up and squared his shoulders, entering the gates of the Academy, and taking his first steps towards the future.

XXX

Jiraiya of the _Densetsu no Sannin_ was a very devious man.

As one of the students of the Sandaime Hokage, he was a genius ninja who, alongside his teammates, had achieved S-Rank status in every single modern bingo book before he had turned twenty-one As the holder of the Toad-Summoning Contract, he was the first user of the esoteric art of Senjutsu in over a century. As an interpersonal genius, he had, within four years' time, set up the most extensive spy network in the history of the elemental continent for the benefit of his home village.

As such, it was a true testament to his skill as a shinobi that most people who had met the white-haired man thought that he was an utter blithering moron.

Take, for example, the current situation that the Gama-sannin had found himself in.

To the unskilled observer, it would appear that, after deciding to (once again) go peep on the local hotsprings, somehow despite being a kage-level shinobi, Jiraiya had (once again) been caught by a bunch of untrained civilians during his escapade. Afterwards, these civilian women had (once again) chased him halfway around the village, and were now (once again) in the process of brutally beating the pervert to within an inch of his life.

Of course, a skilled observer would see something quite different:

In the beginning, Jiraiya had, as he usually did, gone to the local hot-springs in order to listen in on the gossiping civilian women.

After all, a loudmouthed wife often hears the most interesting rumors, and to a man as skilled at understanding and organizing information as Gama-sannin, such rumors could translate into extremely important information on the current political and social climate in the area in which he was currently residing.

After, the white-haired man had decided that he was finished gathering information, he had, as per his usual modus operandi, _allowed_ himself to be noticed by the bunch of furious, untrained civilian women. His reasons for allowing this were twofold:

One, was of course the fact that it allowed Jiraiya to reinforce his idiot persona. After all, on the battlefield, almost every single time, the most underestimated shinobi was the one who lived the longest. In addition to this, it made gathering information that much easier. After all, while a man is careful of what he says in front of a genius, he does not regulate his words when speaking to an idiot, and this was a fact that the Gama-sannin took full advantage of.

The second reason was a bit less obvious, and was what led into the third action that the Jiraiya took:

He _allowed_ the women chasing him to capture him, and to administer their beatdown.

To any normal shinobi, a surprise kick in the balls by a civilian has just as much of an effect as it has on a normal person: the victim will usually go cross-eyed before collapsing to the ground screaming in pain.

However, to a normal shinobi _reinforcing his body with chakra_, a kick in the family jewels from a civilian woman feels like nothing more than a slight tap on the leg.

In other words, while he _acted_ like he was in great pain when taking his usual 'beatdown', Jiraiya felt very little actual agony from the strikes because he was constantly reinforcing his body with chakra.

And while the furious women continued to attack him, the perverted sage took every opportunity he could to cop a feel, or take a peek at their bodies. After all, while his _idiocy_ may have been faked, his perversion was most certainly _not_.

Anyhow, this above point was the primary reason why Jiraiya was particularly annoyed when, in the midst of his latest bout of 'punishment', he felt the familiar tug of a reverse summoning as he was forcibly teleported to the top of Mount Myoboku.

Quickly getting up from his position on the ground, the Gama-Sannin noticed both Fukasaku and Shima standing in front of him. Faced with two of the oldest sages on all of Mount Myoboku, the heirs of the Great Toad Sage, and his very own mentors in the arts of Senjutsu, Jiraiya did the natural thing.

He started whining.

"Maaaa, Paaaaa! Why did you call me here now? I was just getting to the good part!" he moaned.

"Jiraiya-chan" said Fukasaku, his face grave.

"I mean, just a few seconds longer and I would have gotten even more great peeks!" Jiraiya continued.

"_Jiraiya-chan_" said Shima, as veins popped out on both of the Great Sage Toads' heads.

"I mean really, Ma, Pa, you have the _worst_ timing! There was that one woman…" Jiraiya's voice trailed off into a perverted giggle, while his hands grasped a pair of imaginary breasts.

"_**Jiraiya-chan**_!" both of the sages exclaimed, as they simultaneously kicked the Gama-Sannin in the head, "_Listen to us!_"

Looking up from his position on the ground, Jiraiya saw the serious expressions on the faces of the two Great Sage Toads. He decided to stop playing around.

"Why did you call me?" he asked, schooling his emotions.

It was Shima who answered, "Jiraiya-chan, do you remember when you first came to these mountains, how the Great Toad Sage gave you a prophecy about your future?"

Jiraiya's face became grave. If this was about _that_ prophecy, the prophecy of the Savior who would end the Cycle of Hatred, then what his mentors had to say was obviously very important. He nodded his head in affirmation.

"We called you here because Ojiji-sama has seen more visions relating to that prophecy."

Face grave, the Gama-sannin spoke three words.

"Tell me everything."

XXX

An hour later, Jiraiya was returned to the middle of the street from which he had been summoned. He immediately dashed to the hotel in which he was staying and began to pack.

"_I see a boy with the soul of a fox and the name of a storm,"_ the Great Toad Sage's voice echoed in his head, _"A boy with great potential. A boy whose coming spells both destruction and salvation for the world. Find him, Jiraiya, for _he_ is the one who will fulfill your dream."_

Minato would need to know of this.

**A/N: Yay! I'm finally finished with this damn chapter!**

**Honestly, I **_**hated**_** writing this chapter. I could **_**not**_** get the story to flow properly and it annoyed the crap out of me. Now that it's finally finished, I have this sense of… vindictive happiness, I guess?**

**Anyhow a few things:**

**About steak: I am a vegetarian. I have no idea how steak tastes. For that description that I gave of steak, I literally did a Google search for "Words to describe steak", and picked random adjectives from the first list I came across.**

**On the chase in the Forest of Death: In case I wasn't clear enough, Naruto was **_**not**_** being chased by man-eating tigers through the Forest of Death. Those were Minato's henge'd kage bunshin.**

**About the new prophecy: I dislike the current wording, since it sounds pretentious as hell, but I really couldn't think of a more accurate way to put it. Sorry if you felt like digging your eyeballs while you read it. I know that I did.**

**Actually, scratch that almost **_**half**_** of this chapter sounded as pretentious as hell to me. Rest assured, this will not persist in future chapters.**

**On Kushina: Yes, Naruto/Arashi has been interacting with her over the past four weeks, and yes, they have forged a sibling relationship of a sort. I didn't write it in, and I'm actually feeling rather bad about how I didn't really develop her very much this chapter. Rest assured though, I have some pretty big things planned for her, and she **_**will**_** have a role to play in the events to come.**

**Jiraiya: Honestly, he felt kind of OoC, but I really couldn't help it. Sorry about that! I am actually going to reread his scenes from Part I so that I will avoid this problem in future chapters.**

**Really, I disliked this chapter overall. It lacked the, I guess, 'oomph' of previous chapters. The main reason why I'm publishing it already is so that I can get it out of the way and **_**finally**_** start moving the story along.**

**Though the truly **_**interesting**_** events are still a few chapters away, annoyingly enough…**

**Finally, I am still in school until the 29****th****, so don't expect fast updates until after the conclusion of my classes. Unfortunately, RL must always take precedence over fanfiction.**

**Also, the next chapter is probably going to be introducing the two major OC's of this fic. If you do not already know what role they are going to play (*coughgeninteamcough*), then, as Mr. T says, "I pity da foo"**

**Anything else… Oh yeah! I almost forgot to mention:**

**This is important: THIS FIC IS BASED OFF OF THE MANGA, NOT THE ANIME. I have never watched the anime filler, and almost all of my knowledge of Naruto comes from the manga. I **_**might**_** include some elements from the movies in this story, but don't expect very much. Just wanted to get that out of the way, so that people would not be operating on false pretences, or something.**

**Anyhow, read! Review! Continue to worship the Mighty Log (Since I am **_**so**_** going to be including that at some point)! And after that, review again!**

**And if you still have time after that, then proceed to blatantly rip off Third Fang's A/N's! After all, why mess with success?**


	8. Chapter 7: Back to the Basics

**A/N: Here it is!**

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The Brothers Namikaze

Chapter 7: Back to the Basics

Naruto hadn't really known what to expect when he reentered the Academy for the first time.

At first, there was a sense of déjà vu, and after looking around for a bit, Naruto could tell why. The room in the Hokage Tower where the classes were held was organized in pretty much the exact same way as it had been in the young blondehe 's own era, with the teacher's work table situated at the front of the room, and the students' desks arranged increasingly elevated rows up to the back.

Even the current student body seemed to be remarkably similar to Naruto's own graduating class. Most of them seemed to be paying attention, but a few, such as a boy who's facial tattoos identified him as an Inuzuka (_Kiba…_ he thought sadly) seemed to be behaving rowdily, and not paying attention.

The class instructor, a brown-haired chuunin smiled kindly at Naruto, apparently mistaking his quiet, pensive demeanor for shyness. Then he turned and addressed the room.

"Good day everyone. Today, we have a new student joining our class." He turned over to the blonde boy and gave him a reassuring look, "Introduce yourself to your classmates, Arashi-kun," at the boy's questioning glance, the instructor elaborated, "Tell them your likes, dislikes and dreams for the future."

Naruto affixed a wide grin to his face, then looked up at the people who would be his peers for the next two years, "Hi, my name is Namikaze Arashi!" He began enthusiastically, "My likes are ramen, Kiiroi-niisan, Tomato-neesan, Tsunade-bachan, and all of my precious people! My dislikes are the three minutes it takes ramen to cook, things which try to hurt my precious people, and… caliigraphy." The last word was bitten out with quite a bit of rage behind it. Oh how he _loathed_ calligraphy.

He continued without a beat, "My dream for the future is to become a great ninja like Kiiroi-niisan and…" he trailed off, lost in thought.

"And?" the instructor prompted.

"And to protect something important to me," he finished, his voice suddenly filled with absolute, ruthless certainty.

The chuunin seemed a bit taken aback by hearing such a cold statement from an eight-year old boy, but quickly recovered. Turning around, he addressed the class, "Now, do any of you have questions for Arashi-kun?"

For a moment, no one spoke. Then, a single hand rose up from the back of the room, "I have a question, sir", a voice said.

Looking at the person who had spoken, Naruto saw that it was a girl.

He tilted his head slightly

_Black hair, pale white skin, and black eyes. She looks… familiar._ Naruto observed quizzically, _Where have I seen her before? I don't ever remember meeting a girl with those exact features…_

"Ah, Aiko-chan," said the instructor, breaking Naruto out of his thoughts, "Please introduce yourself to Arashi-kun."

The girl stood up, a stoic look on her face, "Hello, Arashi-san. I am Uchiha Aiko."

Naruto felt his eyes widen involuntarily. That was it. That was where he had seen her before.

She looked like Sasuke. Almost _identical_ to Sasuke.

_Uchiha… that's right. Itachi hasn't killed Sasuke's family yet. In fact, he hasn't even been _born_ yet._ Naruto thought, with growing excitement,_ That means that I can save them too!_

"Ano, Arashi-kun?" the instructor asked worriedly, seemingly noticing his sudden, hidden glee.

Naruto shook his head, clearing his mind of thoughts, and quickly responded, "Ah! Nice to meet you, Aiko-san!" Her expression didn't even twitch at his enthusiasm.

_A whole clan of the teme,_ Naruto thought slightly exasperatedly, yet with an undercurrent of fondness, _Just brilliant._

Plowing onward, Naruto continued speaking, "So, what did you want to know?"

"This… Tsunade-bachan that you mentioned. Are you perhaps referring to Tsunade-sama of the Sannin?" she asked in a tone which implied that she most definitely thought he was _not_, but was asking anyways, just in case.

Naruto grinned, "Yeah!" he said brightly.

Her jaw dropped open, expressing her shock. The resulting expression was so comically out of place on her previously emotionless face, that Naruto almost couldn't stop himself from laughing out loud.

However, while he managed to stop his guffaw, his grin _did_ grow slightly wider, seeing as the expression on _her_ countenance made it all too easy to imagine the same one on Sasuke's.

_Ah, yes. Watching the teme's jaw flop around like he was some fish out of water. The very image brings a smile to my lips,_ he thought gleefully.

A look around the room showed that almost the entire class, the instructor included, were wearing shocked looks at the boy's candid statement.

"Y-You call Tsunade-sama, _Tsunade-bachan_?" a stupefied voice from the corner of the room spoke up, "How?" the speaker, a young, completely average-looking strawberry-blonde girl, rose out of her chair slightly, "_Why_?" the speaker rose up even further, "_**When**_?" She was now completely standing up.

_I almost forgot that Oba-chan's pretty much an idol to all of the younger kunoichi in the village, a standard that they all strive to reach…_ Naruto thought wryly, noting the look on the speaker's face, which was an interesting mixture of surprise, awe, and pure jealousy.

Outwardly though, Naruto simply scratched the back of his head and smiled sheepishly, "Ah, well…" he said, "It's kind of a long story. Can I just take the next question?"

Almost all of the hands in the room shot up at once.

The young blonde was slightly amused at the sudden enthusiasm. Not that it was exactly _surprising_, considering that they all now knew of the his connection to Tsunade.

"Um…" Naruto looked around the room, then pointed at a random boy (who he vaguely noted was an Aburame), out of the people sitting in the front row, "You."

"Considering that your 'Tsunade-bachan' was actually someone very important, I must now enquire about who this 'Kiiroi-niisan' and 'Tomato-neesan' you mentioned are. Why? Because, since the first person you mentioned was an extremely important individual, it is logical to conclude that these other two people are also of similar standing." The boy said in a cold tone extremely reminiscent of Shino's.

"Ah, Kiiroi-niisan is Minato-niisan…" Naruto said, noting several of his classmates' looks of confusion, which quickly morphed into looks of sudden comprehension, and then wary caution and… respect?

A few of the girls also started shooting him… strange glances for some reason. It kind of looked like the way that he himself did when he was eyeing a bowl of ramen.

Slightly disturbed, Naruto decided to ignore them in the hope that they would eventually go away.

_Wow,_ he thought, turning attention to the rest of the room,_ it looks like Dad is already pretty well-known around the village if this many people actually recognize him just by name._

Outwardly, though, he continued speaking without missing a beat, "And Tomato-neesan is Uzumaki Kushina-neesan."

Absolute silence.

Surprisingly enough, it was the instructor who broke the silence, "Y-y-y-you call Uzumaki Kushina, _the_ Uzumaki Kushina, the B-Bloody Habanero, who is known as the Red-haired _demon_, and holds an _A-Rank_ in the Bingo Book, along with an Elite Jounin position in the village's shinobi force, _Tomato-neesan_?" The instructor's voice was incredulous.

"Yeah?" Naruto answered questioningly, not really understanding what the big fuss was all about.

A beat.

"How are you still _alive_?"

"Weeeelllll," Naruto said, scratching the back of his head, "Tomato-neesan doesn't really seem to care when I call her Tomato-neesan. I mean, she _did_ get kind of angry the first time around, but now, it's just like when I call Old Man Hokage, 'jiji'. She doesn't really mind."

The Chuunin fainted from pure shock. Half of the class followed his example.

Oddly enough, the young blonde could hear several of them whispering while they were unconscious. Something about "Gigantic steel basketballs".

_Hmmm… Wonder what's up with them?_ Naruto thought, _I mean, yeah, Mom is kinda scary, but I didn't think she was _that_ scary… And what do basketballs have to do with anything?_

He also noted, with extreme enjoyment, that, while she had not fainted, the expression that the Uchiha girl who had asked him the original question was wearing had given completely away from stoicism to pure, slack-jawed amazement.

_Yep,_ Naruto thought, cackling inwardly, _Definitely fun seeing that expression on Sasuke's face._

His attention was then suddenly drawn to one corner of the room when he heard someone speaking in an awed voice.

"Coolest. New guy. _Ever_."

And _that_ was what marked the rather inauspicious beginning to Naruto's second stay in the Konoha Ninja Academy.

XXX

Sarutobi Hiruzen's clone sat, smoking a pipe at his desk.

The clone was currently very happy.

For one thing, with the aid of three of its peers, the clone had quite nearly finished with all of the seemingly endless paperwork that covered the Hokage's desk.

This was a situation that Sarutobi had not had the fortune of being in for many, many years.

In addition to this, he felt… fresh. New. Like he had been confined to a chair for the past decade, and only now, had been allowed to move once more.

Considering that his use of kage bunshin to perform paperwork had expedited the entire process, and that it was only recently that Sarutobi had once again been allowed to start re-training his body, that metaphor could actually be taken quite literally.

Then, the clone was broken out of its reverie when a small toad appeared on his desk, deposited a scroll there, and then disappeared.

And suddenly, it felt a terrifying sense of déjà vu.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the bunshin reached for the scroll, and then unraveled it.

Three lines:

_I'm returning to Konoha with some news for you, Sensei._

_Jiraiya_

_P.S. Make sure that blonde brat of mine is with you when I come to meet you._

_Yep, definite déjà vu,_ was the clone's last thought before it dispelled itself.

After all, if Jiraiya, Konoha's spymaster, was returning home this early, then something major had probably happened, which meant that the original would have to be here to debrief his student.

Sometimes, Sarutobi _really_ hated his job.

XXX

If anyone tried to describe Seijou Kousuke, they would call him "perfectly average".

He was not too short, yet not too tall, and possessed completely forgettable features: short, drab brown hair, light skin, and dull, grey eyes.

Even his wardrobe reflected his lack of presence. He always wore the same plain brown pants and blue shirt every single day of the week.

The only truly _unusual_ things about him per se were his exceptional written scores on the many tests that the Academy , scores which outstripped even those of the widely-acknowledged shoe-in for Rookie of the Year, Uchiha Aiko. Of course, even these were quickly overlooked. After all, he was just so… _forgettable_.

Kousuke himself was not all too concerned about these things. When he graduated from the Academy, he fully expected to become one of the many so-called "Eternal Genin" of the Hidden Leaf Village's shinobi force. After maybe ten years as a genin, he would most probably retire as a ninja in order to enter into a normal civilian job and take over his parents' small woodcutting business. Then, he would most probably marry a perfectly average civilian girl, and live a long life, before dying and quickly being forgotten.

And he was perfectly content with that. Kousuke had no drive and no real desire to improve himself. He was, quite simply, at ease with his own mediocrity.

In another world, Kousuke did exactly as he planned: he left the shinobi force after surviving the Third Shinobi World War and got married to a perfectly average civilian, and lived a perfectly average life running his parents' perfectly average lumbering business.

However, during the Kyuubi attack one year after the end of the war, he and his family were completely wiped out by the monster. Kousuke died unmourned, and forgotten, forever consigned to the mediocrity he had accepted for himself during his lifetime.

Of course, _that_ destiny was thrown completely off of the rails the day that a certain blonde-haired knucklehead was assigned to his class in the Academy…

XXX

Uchiha Aiko, like most of the members of her illustrious clan, was considered to be a genius.

In all of the practical aspects of being a kunoichi, she was already at the top of the class. The pathetic _children_ from the Academy posed no challenge to her in Taijutsu spars, and she had already mastered the Bunshin, Henge, and Kawarimi. Overall, she was a shoe-in for Rookie of the Year.

As an Uchiha, she had already performed her rite of passage into childhood by mastering the Grand Fireball Technique within two weeks of practice. Even for a member of her clan, that was quite an achievement.

If there was any problem with her, it would be that she was not an extremely… _approachable_ person.

Like many of the other members of her clan, Aiko was arrogant and prideful to a fault. This, when combined with her stoic demeanor, quickly drove any potential friends away from her.

In her first year in the Academy, she did have a small group of persistent admirers of the opposite sex (_Fanboys,_ she thought contemptuously, _some of the most pathetic life forms on the face of the continent_), but after dealing with her biting rejections of their advances, her completely emotionless countenance, and several shallowly-hidden jabs at their manhoods, they had started avoiding her like the plague.

Now, wherever she went in the Academy, whispers followed her. Insulting and mocking her, and spreading false rumors in their attempts to validate their own pathetic _commonness_.

Looking around the room, Aiko sneered inwardly at the worthless rabble seated all around the classroom, before her eyes landed on the figure of the new boy, Namikaze Arashi.

Now him, _he_ was interesting. Apparently, he was often in contact with two of the Leaf Village's top Elite Jounin, Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina, one of them being his brother, and a student of one of the _Densetsu no Sannin_, and the other being close enough to him that he was able to use a somewhat insulting nickname while speaking of her. In addition he also seemed to be extremely good friends with Tsunade of the Sannin, close enough that he actually referred to her as if she was his aunt.

A person with blessed such connections had to have _some_ talent as a shinobi.

_Namikaze Arashi,_ she said, eyeing the boy,_ you will serve as a good measure for my growth as a ninja._

And then she smirked.

In another world, Aiko had been one of the Genin who had been killed during one of the early skirmishes during the course of the Third Shinobi World War. Pathetically enough, she probably would have survived the battle in which she died if she had simply swallowed her pride for one moment.

However, instead of doing the _smart_ thing, and escaping from the battle she had gotten into, she instead arrogantly decided to attack an Iwa jounin around ten minutes after she first activated her sharingan, even though she had no backup, and no chance of winning the battle in the first place.

The man killed her in less than a minute, and so, she was consigned to her ultimate fate as a simple name left on the Memorial Stone

In this world though, that fate was thrown off the rails in the moment Namikaze Arashi took his first step into the Konoha Ninja Academy.

XXX

Naruto stepped out of the Academy, yawning.

As he started walking back to Minato's small apartment, he reflected back on his first day back in school.

It had been rather boring, not that he had really expected anything else, considering that he already knew all of the material the class was covering. Halfway through the school day, he had simply stopped listening to the teacher in favour of practicing his calligraphy.

While the blonde may have virulently _hated_ the monotony of constantly writing and rewriting the same letters over and over and over again, he also realized that it was something of a necessity if he was actually planning on mastering the art of sealing anytime soon, and wanted to save his parents.

As such, in a typically Uzumaki Naruto fashion, he had decided to power his way through the boring part as quickly as possible so that he could move on to the more interesting things, such as learning how to actually construct practical-use seals.

The boy had actually contemplated just giving up on fuuinjutsu at one point, since he found the first step, learning calligraphy, to be so _abominably_ boring.

However, once he had expressed these sentiments to Minato, the older man, instead of trying to force him to continue working on calligraphy, took another approach, one that none of Naruto's former teachers had ever even _thought_ to use.

He had tried to _inspire_ the boy.

What this had involved was the older man handing the younger one of his basic sealing manuals for him to read, after, of course, extracting a promise that Naruto would not attempt to actually _use_ any of the seals presented in the volume.

As much as Naruto hated to admit it, he had been hooked within ten minutes of opening the text. Sealing was just so _interesting_, like working on one, massive, interconnected _puzzle_.

As soon as he finished the book, he ran up to his brother, begging for the next volume. Minato had simply smiled gently and told the boy that he would give it to him once he finished his basic calligraphy lessons

And there was nothing he could do but follow his brother's orders. From that point onwards, Naruto had worked like a man possessed, constantly attempting to hone his handwriting so that he could get to the truly _interesting_ aspects of the sealing arts.

The boy was jolted from his musings when he realized that he had arrived at the apartment. Walking up to Minato's room, Naruto cleared his throat and opened the door.

"I'm home!"

No one answered.

The young blonde noticed a note posted to the dining table in the room, and walked up to it to read what it said.

_Out for today on a C-Rank. Will be back late tonight. Left some money for you to buy food for this evening._

_Minato_

_Of course,_ Naruto thought, _his break is over, so he's probably back to doing missions for the village._

Which meant that Naruto, for the first time in two weeks, had the entire evening off from training.

Quickly running up to his room, the young blonde approached the small trunk at the foot of his bed which he used to store his clothing. Opening it up, he withdrew a hideous orange jumpsuit.

Then he _grinned_.

And that _grin_ morphed into _laughter_.

And that _laughter_ morphed into a full-blown _cackle_.

After all, if Minato was away that evening, then Naruto was free to do whatever he liked.

And the one thing that Naruto liked doing above all other things was pranking people.

_Watch out, village!_ Naruto thought with a wide, mischevious, foxlike grin on his face, _'Cause Konoha's #1 most awesome prankster is back!_

Poor, poor Konoha, and poor, poor Sarutobi.

XXX

Jiraiya returned to the village that evening.

Approaching the gates to announce his arrival, the Gama-Sannin was treated to the shocked countenances of the two chuunin who guarded the entrance to the village.

"Jiraiya-sama! You have returned as well?" one of them asked with a gleeful expression on his face.

"Yes, I ha- Wait. What do you mean "as well"?

"You don't know?" the guard asked, surprised. At Jiraiya's confusion, he continued, "Tsunade-sama returned a month ago, and she's still here!"

Jiraiya blinked. His teammate was back home?

That was… interesting. Tsunade had told him the last time that they saw each other, a few days after Dan's death that she would never return to Konoha. The fact that she had returned anyways meant that something major had obviously happened.

In any case though, he would pay her a visit. After all, she still _was_ his teammate, and one of his oldest friends. Plus, he was curious about what had led to her sudden change of heart.

But first…

"You two," he said, addressing the guards, "inform the Hokage of my arrival. I will need to speak to him as soon as possible."

"Yes, Jiraiya-sama. I will send a runner immediately."

The Gama-Sannin re-entered the village, making a beeline for the hotsprings.

Hey, if he had to wait for his sensei's summons, then why should he waste his time doing nothing?

XXX

_One hour later…_

"Jiraiya-sama."

"Yes?"

"I have been sent to inform you that Namikaze Minato is currently out of the village on a C-rank mission. He is expected to return late tonight. As such, Sandaime-sama has ordered you to report to his office at 0700 hours tomorrow."

"Will do."

_Well, I guess I have some time. Maybe I should go check up on Tsunade-hime…_

XXX

"Tsu-nade-hime!" a singsong voice called out as the door to the Senju compound swung open, and an interloper strolled in.

Tsunade looked up from her reading to see her old teammate.

"Jiraiya," she said flatly, "To what do I owe the… _pleasure_."

"Awww… Tsunade-hime, why are you being so cold? Aren't you happy to see me?" The goofy man asked while wearing a clownish smile on his face.

"No, not at all," she replied in a chilling tone, "In fact, I would rather have waited another few months before I had to see your ugly face once again."

The man comically drooped to the floor, "How... how mean. And after I came here just to see you…"

Tsunade snorted, "Yeah right. You probably originally returned to the village to give a report to sensei," Jiraiya recoiled slightly, as a metaphorical arrow pierced his chest, "and after the gate guards told you I was back, instead of coming to visit me first, you immediately ran to the hot springs to peep on some women," another arrow, "and _after_ Sarutobi-sensei told you that he couldn't meet you today, you then decided to visit me on a random whim." Jiraiya collapsed on the floor as the third arrow pierced him, but then shook his head and recovered his composure.

"Heh, you know me far too well don't you, Tsunade-hime?" he said with a soft smile, a sharp contrast to the goofy grin he had been wearing just a few minutes earlier.

Returning the expression, Tsunade gestured to the seat next to hers, "Come Jiraiya, let's share a drink, and talk for a bit, just like old times."

XXX

Around an hour, and several quiet drinks later, Jiraiya spoke up.

"So, hime, why?"

Tsunade looked over at her old teammate, "Why? Why what?"

Jiraiya shot her a slightly annoyed glance, "You know what I'm asking. Why have you been back in the village for the past month? I thought after our last conversation before you left that you'd never want to return, but here you are."

Tsunade looked pensively down at her glass of sake, and was silent for a moment, seemingly contemplating what she was going to say.

Then she looked up, "I met someone."

Jiraiya tilted his head slightly, "Met someone?"

"Well, it's kind of a long story…"

"We have time."

Tsunade sighed, "I… ran into a street rat around a month ago while I was staying in Tanzaku-gai. He was…" she struggled for the right word to express her thoughts, "interesting. He's only eight years old, but on our first meeting, I saw him manage to hold off three grown civilians with nothing more than the broken leg of a table."

Jiraiya's eyes widened marginally in surprise.

Tsunade continued speaking. "And then, after I talked to him for a bit, it was like…"

"Like?" The white-haired man prompted, curious.

"It was like I was looking at Nawaki again," seeing Jiraiya eyes widening even further, and his mouth opening, about to ask a question, the blonde woman quickly cut him off, "I don't know _how_ or _why_, he just… _did_. The kid doesn't even physically _resemble_ Nawaki, but he has this… quality about him that just makes them seem so _similar_," Jiraiya's mouth snapped shut, and Tsunade continued, "I wanted to… observe him. I just… I don't _know_. I just feel this need to make sure that the kid is _safe_, to… to protect him, you know?"

The woman looked up, and saw that her teammate was smiling tenderly at her, "I see. I hope…" Jiraiya trailed off, contemplating his next words, "I hope that he will help you find the answer you are searching for," he finished.

And then, his teammate smiled back, and they were silent for a while.

XXX

The second time, Tsunade broke the silence.

"I'm worried about Orochimaru," she said without preamble.

Jiraiya shot her a quizzical expression, "Why? Hebi-kun was fine the last time I saw him."

"You don't understand Jiraiya, his behaviour, it's like he's… it's just strange," she finished.

"What do you mean?"

"It's like… it's like he's been… _retreating_ from the world around him," at Jiraiya's questioning glance, she elaborated, "Do you know, that in all of the time I've been back in the village, our old teammate hasn't even tried to contact me _once_?"

Jiraiya looked slightly taken aback at that, but quickly recovered, "Well, while it is unusual, I don't really think it's _that_ strange. I mean, Hebi-kun never _was_ the most social guy on the continent."

Shooting her teammate an exasperated glance, Tsunade continued, "I _know_ that Jiraiya, but this… this is different, I can feel it. Something's… _changed_. Orochimaru was always kind of antisocial, but now, he's practically become a _recluse_. Even the normal citizens are starting to talk about how strange he's behaving."

"Strange behaviour? What strange behaviour?"

"It's like he's retreated into his estate. He never comes out, he refuses to talk to anybody, including sensei, and he turns away all of the people who approach his home because he's busy with one project or another," Tsunade said, "It's not _normal_, Jiraiya."

"I guess that _is_ strange," the Gama-Sannin admitted, "but what do you expect me to do about it?"

Tsunade shot him an exasperated glance, "Jiraiya, you're his _best friend_. If _anyone_ can get him out of his shell at this point, it's you. Talk to him. See what's wrong. He may turn sensei away from his home, but I'm certain he won't do the same to you."

The white-haired man looked at her pensively, then seemed to come to a decision, "Okay," he said, giving the blonde woman a reassuring smile, "I'll go and have a talk with Hebi-kun after my report to Sarutobi-sensei, and make sure that everything is all right."

Tsunade sent a grateful nod to the white-haired man.

And then, the two of them were silent once more.

XXX

Once they finished the bottle of sake they were going through, Jiraiya got up, wordlessly gave his teammate one last smile and left the building.

_In the end,_ he thought clinically, _I guess that this is both reassuring and troubling. It seems that Tsunade-hime is finally getting over Dan and Nawaki's deaths, but Orochimaru is drifting away from us._

And then Jiraiya realized something.

_I forgot to ask her for the name of that kid she mentioned…_

Oh well, he would question her during their next meeting. It wasn't like he needed to know the kid's name immediately.

_Too bad. He seemed pretty interesting. Meh, I'll probably meet him sometime soon anyways…_

**A/N: Whew. Twelve-page chapter.**

**Anyhow, there's chapter 7. There wasn't as much humor in this chapter as the previous ones, since I'm actually setting up the plot for the next few chapters here. Sorry if it was kind of boring, but I really couldn't help it, since this was all stuff I needed to get out of the way in order to move the plot forward later on.**

**On the OC's: In case you didn't realize, Kousuke and Aiko are modelled off of Sakura and Sasuke respectively. They are also going to be the other two members of Naruto's genin team.**

**To create Kousuke, what I did was first I took Part I Sakura, genderbent her, then removed her fangirlish tendencies.**

**Sakura, through Part I, always gave me the impression of someone who, very fundamentally, didn't know what she wanted to do with her life. That was why she always pursued Sasuke, because she wanted some sort of **_**direction**_**, somewhere to point herself, a goal to achieve.**

**As such, when I removed this fixation of hers, what I was left with Kousuke, who is a guy who simply does not know what he wants in life. Because he has no clue of what he wants, he is perfectly content with letting other people lead him around by the nose, and following their plans. He has no real ambition, and no real desire for control over himself, or to push his limits to improve himself. He simply… drifts, existing, but not acting. That is his fatal flaw, which got him killed in the original timeline.**

**On the other hand, Aiko was created by genderbending Sasuke, then keeping his personality, but removing his plot armor and angsty past. What we are left with is someone extremely prideful and jealous, who is almost universally considered superior by her peers, and yet is paradoxically constantly insecure in her own position of superiority.**

**By the way, just like Sasuke has his older brother Itachi, who he always feels inferior to, Aiko has Mikoto, her older sister (this was implied, but not outright stated in the chapter) who **_**she**_** always feels inferior to. It is a very purposefully-created parallel.**

**Basically, Aiko is an arrogant bitch, but one who will, admittedly, get better as time goes on, due to the fact that she does not have an older brother who will mindrape her back into the stone age at the moment when she shows a hint of improvement.**

**So anyways, on naming:**

**Kousuke is just a random, common Japanese name that I thought up on the fly. His last name, Seijou, on the other hand, means "normal", since that is what Kousuke is. He is not from some long lineage of powerful shinobi. His parents are simple woodcutters, and he is a first-generation Academy graduate and shinobi. He is going to serve as a plot device of sorts for me to connect with the regular civilians of Konoha, and relay their opinions of Arashi and Minato.**

**Aiko, on the other hand, is a name that I actually took from another fanfic: ****New Perspective****, by Shadow2341. If you haven't heard of it, **_**this**_** story is an absolutely **_**perfectly**_** executed version of a fanfic with a major OC character, since said character is actually a three-dimensional **_**person**_**, rather than a caricature who serves as a poorly-written Mary Sue self-insert. I used the name for luck, and as a reminder so that I won't turn either of **_**my**_** OCs into Mary Sues.**

**So, another question that I probably should answer beforehand: Why did I make Aiko an Uchiha?**

**This, quite simply, was because I need a character who could serve as a mouthpiece of sorts for that clan, since I plan to have the Uchiha as **_**major**_** players in the story later on. I actually looked through Narutopedia searching for **_**some**_** member of the clan that I could use as a substitute for my OC, but none of them were the right age at this time period.**

**Anything else? Oh yeah! The "previous timeline" death scenes: those were put into the chapter to primarily show that Aiko and Kousuke's flaws are Very Big Problems, and to emphasize that, yes, they **_**are**_** imperfect and **_**human**_** characters. In the original timeline, Kousuke's apathy and Aiko's arrogance ended up destroying them. It will be up to Naruto to save them this time around.**

**Anyhow, I'm expecting a ton of reviews from people who didn't read the previous author's notes which will basically go something like:**

**HURRRR DURRRR HOW DARE YOU CREATE OCS INSTEAD OF USING KISHIMOTO'S ONE-DIMENSIONAL, UNDERDEVELOPED CHARACTERS WHO MAY AS WELL BE OCS ANYWAYS? BLASPHEMY!**

**But I'm prepared for it. And I will deal with it when the time comes.**

**Luckily, next chapter is probably going to refocus on Minato, Kushina, and Jiraiya, and will almost certainly have quite a bit of humor in it.**

**So read, and review! Then read again and review again! Oh, and then worship the log. That's kind of important as well.**

**(I'm kind of hoping to break the 100 review mark this chapter)**


	9. Chapter 8: Pranking no Jutsu

**A/N: Finally managed to get this written. Hope you enjoy it!**

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The Brothers Namikaze

Chapter 8: Pranking no Jutsu

Minato was bone-tired by the time he returned to Konoha.

For one thing, he had been fighting off waves of bandits for the last hour. Apparently, the client that he had been hired to protect was the daughter of some rich country noble whose rival had apparently hired a small group of highwaymen to kidnap the girl, so as to use her as leverage against her father.

Normally, it would not have been too difficult to deal with a group of _common_ bandits for any normal shinobi team, since most such groups consisted of loosely-organized rabble, whom would scatter at the first sign of any sort of resistance from a trained group of shinobi guards.

Unfortunately, while the minor noble who had requested them had seemed to care enough about his daughter to hire a C-rank shinobi team to protect her, he had apparently _not_ cared enough to disclose just _how much_ this rival of his wanted to get his hands on the girl.

In other words, it had not been a _common_ group of bandits who had been after her.

No, this group was led by two _jounin_-level missing-nin.

Once Minato found out about _this_ slightly important tidbit, what had followed was a brutal, fast-paced, three-hour battle which involved the blonde-haired elite jounin rapidly trading blows with the two enemy ninja, while at the same time aiding his chuunin guard team in repelling the waves of bandits and low-level missing-nin who charged the client's entourage in an attempt to snatch the girl away while the squad leader was occupied.

The fight had _finally_ ended when he succeeded in tricking one of the enemy ninja using an exploding shadow clone, and managed to exploit moment of surprise that he had he had created to place an especially powerful shock tag of his own creation on the other one. The first had been torn to pieces by the clone's explosion, while the second one was fried to death by the discharge from the tag.

Luckily, after their leaders were gone, the remnants of the group broken and scattered relatively quickly, and two minutes later, the battle was over. Minato was tired enough at this point that he just wanted to lie down and rest for the next hour before the team arrived at their destination.

Unfortunately, _those_ plans had been blown out of the water when, after watching the battle, the client, a young, fifteen-year-old girl, had taken an all-too _intimate_ interest in the blonde man, and he had had to spend the next hour fending off the annoying girl's _advances_.

At the end, when the escort had _finally_ arrived at its destination, Minato had informed his team to stay at a hotel in the city, then dragged up his last dregs of chakra to teleport back to the gates of Konoha.

It was around 2:00 AM at this point.

And then, the blonde-haired man had been informed by the gate guard that he had a meeting with the Sandaime in five hours.

Minato had wanted to scream, cry out, complain that he had _worked hard enough_ for an entire _week_, but instead, as per usual, he had smiled and nodded, then walked home, collapsing into his bed, and falling asleep before he even hit the sheets.

Due to his exhaustion, he didn't even notice until the next morning that his little brother was nowhere to be seen in the apartment.

XXX

Minato's eyes shot open precisely one hour before his meeting with the Hokage.

Quickly pulling himself out of bed, he mechanically brushed his teeth, took a bath, then put on his clothes.

Walking over to the dining room, Minato started preparing his breakfast.

Once he was finished, he called out to his brother

"Arashi! Breakfast's ready!"

No response.

Growing suspicious, Minato began to move towards his younger brother's room when something in the corner of his eye caught his vision. It was a note attached to the front of his refrigerator.

Minato walked up and read what it said.

_Sorry niisan! I woke up early to go out to train today!_

_Arashi_

_P.S. I'll be sure to get to school on time! Don't worry about me!_

Minato sighed, pouting slightly as he walked over to the table and began eating. _He_ had wanted to walk his brother to school today. After all, it was his prerogative as Arashi's nii-san to embarrass the kid in front of all of his friends in the Academy during his first week there!

_Really, I escort him to the Academy once, and the next day, he decides that he can do it on his own from now on. That brat really grows up too quickly._

It was a fact that both pleased and saddened him.

On one hand, Arashi's mature attitude alone meant that he would be light-years ahead of his peers by the time he graduated the Academy. This meant that the boy would already have a _far_ smaller chance of dying for some idiotic reason during his first C-Rank mission, like so many other overconfident genin did.

On the other hand, it also meant that the boy was losing his innocence _far_ too quickly for Minato's tastes.

A large part of the blonde-haired man's own formative years had been spent on the battlefields of the Second Shinobi World War. As such, he had always felt that normal childhood happiness was something to be cherished and the fact that his brother seemed guaranteed to lose his shortly weighed heavily on him.

Shaking his head, Minato noticed that he had finished eating, and looked up at the clock.

6:56 AM.

"Crap! I'm going to be laaaaaaaaaaaaaate!" he yelled, surprised.

Immediately, he turned around and ran straight smack into the door, knocking himself onto the ground.

_Ugh…_ he thought while rubbing his head, _I must be really tired…_

Then, he suddenly had an epiphany.

_Wait a second, why don't I just _teleport_ to the office?_ He thought, while resisting the urge to slam his head against the wall for not doing that immediately.

Then, when the blonde-haired man finally got over the need to punch himself in the face, he formed three seals and disappeared in a Yellow Flash.

XXX

At precisely 7:00 AM, Minato appeared in Sarutobi's office in a brilliant flash of yellow.

He then proceeded to trip over his feet, smashing into the ground, and landing right in front of the Hokage's desk. Then, when he tried to get up, he banged his head into the desk, knocking the entire table over, and sending all of the papers so meticulously piled up on it scattering through the room.

Then, when he tried to get up _again_, he proceeded to slip on one of those forms, and landed flat on his ass.

"Owwwww…" he groaned while rubbing his head, "Who hit me?"

Jiraiya and the Sandaime watched the entire debacle with a bemused smile, before the elder finally spoke up, "You know, Minato-kun, right now I would normally make some sort of comment about how you should use the door to get into my office, but in this situation…"

Looking around the office, taking in the fallen desk and scattered papers all around the room, Minato blinked once, then twice, and suddenly flushed as he remembered what had happened.

"Ah, sorry about this Sandaime-sama," he said with a sheepish grin, rubbing the back of his head, "I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. But don't worry! I'll clean it up as soon as we're done talking!" he quickly reassured waving his hands in front of him. Then, he noticed the Gama-sannin standing next to the Hokage, "Ah! Jiraiya-sensei! What are you doing back so early?" Minato asked, quickly changing the subject.

The white-haired man simply sighed, "I have things to discuss with both of you. Sensei, can you get us some chairs? I think you'll want to be sitting for this."

XXX

A few minutes later, Sarutobi, Minato, and Jiraiya were seated in a small circle in the center of the large office.

"Well," Jiraiya said calmly, "I guess first thing's first," he turned to address the Sandaime, "Sensei, war is on the horizon."

Sarutobi leaned forward, and motioned at his student to continue.

Jiraiya sighed, "Iwa and Kumo are massing their forces, and stockpiling supplies. They've increased recruitment, and have started taking more and more missions. The Tsuchikage's counselors are pushing the old fart for an invasion increasingly often. And as you know, if Oonoki invades, then the Sandaime Raikage will follow."

"And what of Suna and Kiri?" Sarutobi asked, probing for information about potential allies for the conflict.

Jiraiya sighed, "Kiri is slowly becoming more and more unstable. The Yondaime Mizukage, Yagura seems to be going _insane_. He's already implemented a new graduation exam for the Kirigakure shinobi Academy," looking over at Minato, Jiraiya saw the questioning glance on his student's face, and elaborated, "he forces the entire graduating class to fight to the death one on one. Children raised together are forced to murder the friends and classmates they grew up with…"

"That's _barbaric_!" Minato said, horrified.

"And it is wasteful as well," the Sandaime continued calmly, "destroying half of each year's graduating class leads to a _massive_ loss of time and resources, and while the shinobi produced by such a process may be tempered in a way that no other villages' are, such a system will simply breed distrust amongst Kiri's own military forces, producing a large number of shinobi who are either cold-blooded psychopaths who kill for enjoyment or relatively normal people who hate the Mizukage on a personal level for what he forced them to do to their friends during the exam. What is he _thinking_?"

Jiraiya shook his head, "I have no idea, but," he turned again to face Sarutobi, "I am certain that his actions will have repercussions. There is already talk in Kiri of a coup de tat in the works. By the time Kumo and Iwa are ready to invade, I have no doubt that the Mist Village will be embroiled in civil war."

"And what of Suna?" Sarutobi prompted.

"Well," Jiraiya said, leaning back, "We definitely have a better chance with them. Iwa and Kumo have been discreet so far, and Sand does not have a very extensive information network, so The Sandaime Kazekage does not seem to be aware of these developments. If we bring him evidence of their movements…"

"Then we have a good chance of getting him and his village on our side." Minato finished for him.

"But still," Sarutobi sighed, and for a moment, Jiraiya saw the weight of the world on his sensei's shoulders, "another war? It has only been a few years since the last one. Have the countries not had their fill of death and destruction already?"

Then, the old man sighed, "Jiraiya, how long do you think we have?" he asked his student.

"If we're lucky? Three years. However, I _don't_ expect us to be lucky, so I would say that we should be ready within the next two." Jiraiya sighed.

The Sandaime looked at the Gama-Sannin, "It shall be done."

And they were silent for a moment.

XXX

Eventually, it was Minato who broke the ensuing silence.

"Sensei, this is all very interesting, but why was I called here?" at their questioning glances, the blonde-haired man elaborated, "I mean, I am a jounin, yes, and a _very_ good one at that, but still, I am just a soldier. I would not normally be privy to such sensitive information, nor would you call me here to simply listen to listen in on your conversation. So I have to ask, why was I summoned?"

Jiraiya smirked, turning to face his student, "I was getting to that," he said, "but it's kind of a long story."

"Please," Minato said, "we have time."

"Well, it started when I was reverse-summoned to Mount Myoboku two days ago," Jiraiya said.

Minato leaned forward, interested. After all, when a person was spontaneously reverse-summoned to the home of the Toads, it was usually for only one of two reasons.

One was if the inhabitants of Mount Myoboku were planning on giving a summoner extended training in some of their arts, such as Senjutsu, or Frog Kumite. Considering that Jiraiya was the master summoner of the Toads, this option was not all that likely.

The second reason was if the Great Toad Sage saw a vision of the future relating to the summoner, and called him to tell him about it.

And usually, when the geriatric amphibian had a vision, it was about something _extremely_ important.

"When I arrived, Fukasaku and Shima informed me that the Great Old Geezer received a few more visions relating to my prophecy." Jiraiya said, confirming Minato's suspicions.

Minato stared at his sensei's face for a few seconds, slowly centering and calming himself in order to better organize the data he would soon be receiving. Then, he prompted, "Well? What was the new vision?"

Jiraiya looked down, "He told me that he saw a boy," _Young male, possibly unborn_.

"A boy with 'great potential'," _Talented, skilled in the shinobi arts maybe? Great potential implies massive ability to grow, change and adapt._

"A boy with 'the soul of a fox'," _Possibly related to Kyuubi? No, subject is male. Kushina is the jinchuriki, and will _continue_ to be so_ _for a while yet. Then, perhaps relating to personality? Kitsune are noted as mischievous tricksters and pranksters. Search for someone with those traits._

"'and the name of a storm'," _Can be taken literally to mean someone named after a storm. Maybe related to aliases? Possibly a naming scheme following theme of 'storm'?_

"He then told me to find this boy, since he would be the one to fulfill my dream," despite having centered and calmed himself, Minato couldn't help the small hint of surprise and excitement at _that_ statement.

_Sub-Conclusion A: Subject is the Child of Prophecy._

_Sub-Conclusion B: Subject is a young, talented, and mischievous male child. Probably enjoys pranking, and is named after a destructive weather phenomenon, and… Oh, who am I kidding? I know someone who fits that description _perfectly_, don't I?_

_Conclusion: My dear and foolish little brother, Namikaze Arashi, is very possibly the Child of Prophecy._

And with that realization, Minato sighed deeply. That little brat _really_ had a way with complicating things, didn't he?

Jiraiya looked up.

"You know something." He said. It was not a question.

Minato opened his mouth, but before he could reply, he was interrupted by a wordless, laughing, childish scream coming from the village.

"What was that?" Sarutobi asked, getting up and walking to the window. Then his jaw dropped down.

Jiraiya got up and walked up to his sensei, only to have the same reaction.

Curious, Minato joined them, looking out on the village. For a moment he just stared.

Then, he gave a deep sigh, pinched the bridge of his nose, and voiced the one thought on his mind at the sight of the new and improved Hokage monument.

"The soul of a fox indeed."

XXX

_Fifteen minutes earlier…_

Standing on top of one of the many buildings near the Hokage monument, Arashi turned to inspect his handiwork.

Yes, that boring old Hokage Monument truly was a masterpiece now. The Shodaime was picking his nose, the Nidaime was wearing a pair of sunglasses, and had a sign hanging from his head saying "Cowabunga dude!", and the Sandaime had a very prominent perverted blush and nosebleed on his face.

Yet all of that paled to what came after the faces of the three hokage.

For right next to the head of the Sandaime were two, larger than life portraits painted into the mountainside.

One showed Namikaze Minato's face.

The other showed Uzumaki Kushina's.

_Quite a stroke of genius, me!_ He thought gleefully.

He was broken out of his pleased reverie by a noise that he knew well.

"You little brat! What have you done to the honorable Hokage monument?"

Ah yes, the sound of an enraged chuunin. Now, he just needed one more thing to make this morning absolutely _perfect_.

Shooting a cheeky grin at the frothing, brown-haired man, who was screaming something stuffy about disgrace, punishment and cleaning duty, Arashi leapt down from the building to begin the chase.

XXX

On the other side of the village, Uzumaki Kushina looked up at the Hokage monument, then collapsed in shock.

_I've been completely outdone…_ she thought in awe.

XXX

Laughter rang out throughout Konohagakure no Sato as an orange-clad blonde-haired boy jumped across the rooftops, chased by several chuunin and ANBU.

"Come on, slowpokes!" Arashi taunted as he continued running, "At least _try_ and challenge my awesomeness! Do you _want_ me to escape?"

Suddenly, he felt a flash of killing intent, and leaped up just before a blunted kunai could slam into his back.

"Awwww, that was mean ANBU-chan!" he said with a cheeky grin on his face, while glancing at the _extremely_ frustrated wolf-masked nin who had thrown the weapon.

Then, his lip started trembling in a blatantly faked display of emotion, "Don't you love me anymore Ookami-chan? How could you try and injure me like that?"

"You little _brat_," he heard one of his pursuers grind out, "I'm going to _kill_ you when I get my hands on you!"

Arashi simply laughed, "You'll have to catch me first, chuunin-chan!" he shot back along with a mischevious grin.

And then, the chase continued. Around ten minutes later, the young, blonde-haired boy decided that he had tormented the poor group for long enough and so, dropped down off of the building he was on top of, disappearing from his pursuers' sights.

XXX

"Quickly, follow him! He's jumped down to the street!" one of the ANBU called out, "Catch him before he gets away!"

The squad quickly followed the boy down, but when they arrived, he was gone.

Quickly walking up to a nearby pedestrian, one of the chuunin spoke up, "Um, Nara-san," he said, vaguely noting the boy's pineapple-shaped hair and the clan symbol on his shirt, "did you see a small boy come this way? Around this tall," he said, indicating the target's approximate height, "Blonde hair, blue eyes?"

The Nara sighed exasperatedly, "Troublesome…" he said, then pointed down the road, "he went that way."

And so, the chuunin turned around calling the rest of his squad to him, and ran down the alleyway. Before he left though, he asked a question.

"By the way, what's your name, kid?"

The Nara looked down, then once again sighed, muttering about how _troublesome_ the chuunin was, but ultimately looked back up and responded.

"Shikamaru. Nara Shikamaru."

It would take a few more hours before the search for the child was called off, and by then, Arashi had several problems of his own to deal with.

XXX

Outwardly keeping up his transformation, Arashi snickered.

These chuunin and ANBU were just _too_ easy. Really, if it had been _his_ time period, then they wouldn't have let him walk away without _at least_ testing for a transformation! These guys _really_ were getting too complacent.

Though, then again, that may have just been because there _were_ no eight-year old children in the village capable of using the henge.

_Well anyways,_ he thought with a smirk, _it looks like they're gone._

But still, henge'ing into Shikamaru had really been a stroke of genius, and now that he thought about it, it really wasn't such a bad idea. Maybe he could do the same for some of his _other_ Rookie Nine friends as well! After all, he knew all of them well enough to be able to fake their personalities to _some_ extent, and it was a _lot_ easier to use them rather than create a completely _new_ persona to wear around the village in order to misdirect his pursuers.

_Plus,_ he thought a bit more soberly, _it's not like anyone in _this_ Konoha knows who they are. This can be my… tribute to them._

Then, he shook his head free of extraneous thoughts. After all, he wasn't safe just _yet_. He still needed to get to class! The kage bunshin he had sent in his place would probably last until around noon, but still he had best get back as soon as possible.

Raising his hands Arashi was about to dispel the illusion, but stopped as he heard two very familiar voices.

"Nara-san!" they called simultaneously.

With a sigh, Naruto, still henge'd turned around to face Minato and Kushina.

"Yes?"

XXX

_Thirty minutes before…_

After quickly shaking himself out of his exasperation at what he was _sure_ was his brother's work, Minato dashed out of the Hokage's office, leaving his sensei and the Sandaime still gaping at the state of the monument.

Quickly weaving through the streets, he ran towards the direction of the small squad of chuunin leaping across the rooftops that he had noticed while looking out the window. They had seemed rather frantic, so it was likely that they had been chasing after the little brat.

Dodging into an alleyway in order to take a shortcut up to the roof, Minato began moving when he spotted a familiar face.

"Kushina-chan?"

"Minato?"

The two of them looked at each other before Kushina moved.

"Are you…?" she asked, gesturing in the direction of the Hokage monument.

"Yeah. You?"

The red-haired woman nodded, then held out her hand.

"Shall we?"

Minato simply smirked, then followed her as she jumped onto the rooftop of one of the nearby buildings.

XXX

"Do you have any idea about who was behind that brillia- err… I mean _shameful_ prank on the Hokage monument?" Kushina asked Minato as they ran across the rooftops together.

Minato palmed his face and sighed, blatantly ignoring his red-haired companion's verbal slip-up, "I have an idea," at Kushina's questioning glance, he continued, "Think about it. Who do you know who is childish, mischievous, and idolizes both of us enough to attempt something like this?"

Kushina frowned, her brow furrowed in thought, then suddenly her eyes shot up, "You think _Arashi-chan_ was behind this?"

Minato nodded, "Yeah, I do. Actually, around a month ago, my little brother and I had a rather long conversation about some of the pranks he played before he arrived here. Apparently, his old guardian was a Jiraiya-sensei-level pervert, and left my brother to his own devices quite often. The kid used to pass the time by playing increasingly crazy pranks on people," at Kushina's still-unconvinced place, the blonde-haired man continued, "You've seen his personality. Is it _really_ that surprising that he would do something like this? The little brat _idolizes_ both of us."

"But still," Kushina questioned, "an _eight-year-old kid_ managed to paint the entire Hokage monument right under the noses of several chuunin and ANBU?"

"What can I say? He's talented." Minato shrugged.

_But that's… what… I don't even… I was beaten in pranking by Arashi?_ Kushina spluttered inwardly.

This was _unacceptable_. She was the _queen_ of pranksters!

"This. Means. War." She muttered under her breath.

"What was that Kushi-chan?" Minato asked innocently. At his companion's nervous expression, he tactfully dropped the subject and continued, sighing, "Anyways, all of that aside, can you find the location of that squad that's chasing him?"

Kushina nodded the affirmative to her companion. Then, both of them halted.

Closing her eyes, the red-haired woman slowly willed her mind, and perceptions to _stop_ as she _reached_ inward to her core.

There, was a massive ball of purest crimson. Kushina, reached out with her thoughts, and forcibly _pulled_ the _smallest_ bit of energy from that reservoir. After all, she wouldn't need to much of _its_ power for this.

Calmly, Kushina took in the red power, slowly letting it flow through her entire body.

Then, she _extended_ her thoughts to her environment.

And suddenly, she could _feel_ the small disturbances in the people around her. A man on the second floor of the building she and Minato were standing on was in pain, a woman down on the street was filled with boredom, a small child playing in a nearby park was happy.

This was one of the abilities granted to her as the current jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Youko, one of the many that her predecessor, Uzumaki Mito, had taught how to utilize in the days leading up to the sealing ritual to transfer the monstrous fox into her body.

This was Empathy, the ability to sense the emotions of the humans around her.

Quickly _looking_ through her environment, Kushina homed in on a large group of assorted feelings: rage, annoyance, and, strangely enough, a faint undercurrent of _amusement_.

_Gotcha,_ the fiery woman thought with a grin.

Opening her eyes, Kushina pointed downward, "They jumped down from here to continue their pursuit," she announced calmly.

Wordlessly, they looked at each other and leapt off the side of the building to street level.

Looking around, Kushina found the source of that feeling of amusement she had noticed earlier. A young Nara boy was standing in the middle of the street, seemingly just lazing around.

_No wait… Not a Nara,_ the red-haired woman thought to herself, _A henge? Interesting…_

Tapping Minato on the shoulder, she pointed the child out to him.

"You think that's him?" he whispered to her.

At her affirmative nod, Minato turned to face the child.

"Nara-san!" they called simultaneously.

The dark-haired boy turned around.

"Yes?"

XXX

As soon as Arashi turned around, Minato instantaneously accelerated, dashing behind him, and then spun around, giving him a resounding smack to the top of his head.

And with a poof of smoke, the henge dispelled, leaving a shocked, orange-clad young blonde facing a _very_ annoyed Namikaze Minato.

"Now, then otouto," he said as a vein popped out on his forehead, "you're going to come with me to the Hokage's Office and- _just what are you wearing_! ! ?"

Faced with a rather… _troublesome_ situation, Arashi said the only thing that he could think of.

"Oh _crap_."

Judging from the way that Minato's eye started twitching, that was _not_ the correct response.

**A/N: Goddammit writer's block sucks.**

**I just could **_**not**_** write this damn chapter. Sorry for the extremely late update.**

**What actually happened here was that I spent a week writing around 2200 words, then realized that the last two-thirds of what I wrote was almost complete crap, then removed those and started writing again.**

**It was **_**agonizing**_**.**

**The removed scenes were originally supposed to be a group of flashbacks focusing on "humanizing" Minato. One of the major problems that I've always found with writing the Yondaime's personality was the fact that Minato in the manga is just so **_**perfect**_**. I wouldn't really call him a Mary Sue, since he is still a likable character, and because, y'know, he gets **_**killed**_**, but what I would describe Minato as is… **_**godlike**_**. He's pretty much a living legend, and ideal to strive towards for basically **_**every**_** character who knows about him.**

**However, while godlike characters are a lot of fun to read about when they are **_**side**_** characters (see: Itachi), when you put them into "Main Character" status, you **_**have**_** to make them human if you want to keep your story interesting.**

**In other words, I was (and still am) faced with the daunting task of giving the "badass amongst badasses" Namikaze Minato **_**character flaws**_**. Hence why I wrote the flashbacks.**

**What I realized though, after I finished writing that segment was that, though I had succeeded in "humanizing" Minato, I had gone **_**too far in the other direction**_**. In other words, I had made him **_**too**_** flawed. The fact of the matter was that the character I created in those scenes was **_**not**_** one that I could reconcile with the sheer badassery of the Yondaime Hokage. That was why I just tossed them out in the end.**

**So anyways, about the chapter:**

**First, I want to apologize. I **_**really**_** wanted to get to the Arashi-Jiraiya meeting scene this chapter, but the thing just kept growing and growing, so I decided to just post what I had rather than keep you guys waiting.**

**Next, about Yagura, or rather, why **_**he's**_** the Mizukage right now:**

**First of all, I think it is pretty heavily implied in the manga somewhere that Yagura's control over the Sanbi actually allowed him to stop his own aging to some extent. That's why he looks so young in the present. That was the justification I used to make him the Mizukage during the current era. **

**Also, if Yagura wasn't the Mizukage at this point in time, I would have had to use the Sandaime Mizukage, who is a character that we, as readers, know absolutely zilch about. That would mean that I would have had to fabricate a backstory and group of abilities for him, since presumably, Kirigakure would **_**not**_** be embroiled in civil war and actually would have been fighting in the war if he was leading it. Basically, it would have been a massive pain, so I just used Yagura instead and removed Kiri from the Third Shinobi World War altogether.**

**Also, there's the matter of Zabuza. He's **_**three**_** right now (26 in Part I minus 23 years), and according to Narutopedia, he graduated from the Academy at age **_**nine**_**. It was also mentioned that the whole schtick with the Kirigakure graduates murdering each other was only stopped when he slaughtered his entire graduating class. **

**Since it's pretty heavily implied that a) Yagura was behind the entire process in the first place, and b) the whole ritual had been going on for quite a few years before Zabuza stopped it, it stands to reason that it started at around the current time period Naruto was sent back to. Thus, Yagura is Mizukage.**

**Secondly, for the alliances in the War, i.e. the Suna-Konoha alliance vs. the Kumo-Iwa alliance.**

**First for Suna-Konoha:**

**At the beginning of the **_**Naruto**_** manga, Suna and Konoha are actually allied with each other. However, we also know that they were **_**enemies**_** during the Second Shinobi World War (since Chiyo mentions how Tsunade became famous for curing the potions that she concocted during the Second War). My theory was that the reason for this alliance was due to this treaty during the **_**Third**_** World War. Which just kind of carried over to the modern era. Yeah…**

**Secondly about the Iwa-Kumo alliance:**

**Yes, I know that there was that scene where Minato and A were shown fighting during the war, but at the same time, that one battle wasn't enough evidence for me to say Kumo and Iwa were allied during the war since it was quite possible that, while both of them were against Konoha, they were also fighting each other.**

**However, for all of you who read/watched Kakashi Gaiden, you probably remember that last scene, where Kakashi kills Kakko (the Iwa jounin) with his chidori and Obito's eye. Afterwards, he's confronted by a large number of enemies.**

**Now here's the clincher: the guy who addresses our favorite little jounin? You know, the one who basically tells him that he's impressed since Kakashi is still fighting despite the fact that he is outnumbered? He's wearing a **_**Kumo**_** headband. Thus, it stands to reason that Kumo and Iwa were allied during the Third World War, since it's pretty obvious that they're conducting a joint operation here.**

**Kiri, on the other hand, is never really seen or mentioned during the Third War flashbacks during the series, hence my logic for just removing them altogether from the thing.**

**Also, many thanks to Tellemicus Sundance for helping me out with some ideas in this story. On a side note, the whole 'Henge'ing into his Rookie Nine Pals' that Naruto did this chapter was something that Tellemicus originally presented to me.**

**Now for some completely unrelated things:**

**First, you guys are **_**awesome**_**! Seriously, **_**Sixty-Four Reviews**_**? I'm so happy that I could cry!**

**Also, on a side note, the 100 review mark has been surpassed quite tidily.**

**Now, considering how many I got **_**last**_** chapter, I'm hoping to break the 200 review mark this chapter.**

**So please, Read! Review! Try (and fail) to kill Orochimaru! Then Review Again! **

**Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter!**

**Signing out.**


	10. Chapter 9: The Third Meeting

A/N: Your eyes do not deceive you. This is an update

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The Brothers Namikaze

Chapter 9: The Third Meeting

Minato's anger at the situation had died down relatively quickly. If he thought about it, the painting on the monument really was more of an annoyance than a hindrance. There would probably be a few questions about the drawings, and the entire uproar would die down within a week's time.

The jumpsuit on the other hand, was a bit more aggravating, especially considering how Minato had _specifically_ forbidden his brother from wearing it around the village. However, his frustration at _that_ had been quelled once he and Kushina had dragged the brat back to the blonde man's apartment, then forced the boy into one of the many miniature, light blue versions of the standard Konoha shinobi uniform that he had been wearing for the past month.

Afterwards, Minato had taken the jumpsuit outside, then proceeded to incinerate it with a minor Katon Jutsu in front the little brat.

The experience was rather… cathartic, to say the least.

Which was why he was actually feeling rather happy right now despite his relatively crappy morning.

Currently, Minato, Kushina and Arashi were walking down the street on the way to the Hokage's office. The two older members of the group were whistling a synchronized, jaunty tune.

The younger, on the other hand…

"I-I can't believe that you two… you _incinerated_ it! H… How could you _do_ that Kiiroi-niisan?" the little boy asked, in between tears.

Minato shot the boy a dry look, "Arashi, stop acting so dramatic. It was a piece of _clothing_, not your life."

The younger blonde looked up incredulously, "How dare you? !" the boy responded heatedly, "You don't understand anything at all! It's not just a piece of clothing! It's so much _more_ than that!"

Minato raised his eyebrow, "Really now."

"Of course!" Arashi exclaimed, "It's _orange_ clothing, and orange is the most _awesomest_ color in the _world_! Therefore burning orange clothing is a crime against humanity!"

"_Really_ now," Minato repeated, while trying to fight off a grin at the boy's antics.

"Yes! Of course!"

Minato simply barked out a laugh and continued dragging his brother with him to the tower.

Kushina on the other hand who had been looking rather… pensive up until then, shook her head and spoke up, "Ne, Arashi-chan, I have a… question for you."

"Yes?" the little boy asked curiously.

"I was wondering… How did you manage to avoid detection painting the monument when you were wearing bright orange clothing? That area is constantly patrolled by chuunin and ANBU squads, so it's really strange that none of them saw you while you were working on your prank."

Minato perked up at this. In truth, he was also curious as to the answer to that question.

The boy tilted his head in confusion for a moment, then spoke up, "Isn't it obvious?" he asked, "It's _because_ of my awesome pranking suit that I was able to paint it!"

"What do you mean by that?" Minato asked, curious.

After all, he would have expected that… abomination to have _hindered_ the boy's task, not _aided_ in it.

"Well," the boy said, "let me ask you a question. What color is the Hokage monument when the sun is behind it in the morning?"

Minato looked at him, uncomprehending for a moment, then flinched.

"Orange…" he said in surprise.

"Of course!" Kushina exclaimed, "you were using those clothes as _camouflage_! That's why the guards couldn't see you when you were painting the monument!"

_That… that's actually quite ingenious._ The blonde man thought with wide eyes as his brother smirked arrogantly.

"Hmph!" Arashi said, puffing out his chest pridefully, "See! I _told_ you that orange is the most awesomest color ever, Kiiroi-niisan!"

XXX

_A few minutes later…_

Sarutobi was not surprised when the door to his office banged open, and Minato walked in with a young blonde in tow.

He was a bit surprised when Uzumaki Kushina walked in after him.

"Hokage-sama," Minato announced in a calm voice, "Jounin Uzumaki and I have apprehended the culprit behind the… desecration of the Hokage monument this morning."

Sarutobi leaned forward, "Explain."

Minato nodded, "After I left the Hokage's office, I started after the ANBU squad that I believed was following the culprit, hoping to apprehend him before he escaped. On my way, I met jounin Uzumaki, who was pursuing a similar goal. We agreed to team up in order to search for the culprit."

At this point, Kushina cut the blonde man off, "After we travelled for a short while, we realized that the ANBU squad in pursuit of the culprit had lost his trail. At this point, jounin Namikaze asked me to utilize my… unique sensing abilities in order to locate the subject, who, at this point, we had both determined to be little Arashi-chan over here," Sarutobi noticed Jiraiya stiffen at the mention of the boy's name.

"We found him hiding under a henge, in plain sight," Minato continued calmly, "After I… neutralized my foolish otouto, I realized that the clothing he was wearing at the time would be… unacceptable for presentation in front of you, Hokage-sama. As such, jounin Uzumaki and I… escorted him back to my apartment in order to get him a change of clothes. Once we finished… changing him, I… disposed of the... less-than-acceptable attire."

Sarutobi gave an amused chuckle, his impassive mask cracking with the gesture, "Really now Minato-kun? While a blinding orange jumpsuit may not have been the best choice of clothing for a meeting with me, was it really necessary to _incinerate_ the thing?"

Minato and Kushina stiffened simultaneously.

"How did you…" Kushina trailed off, surprised.

The Sandaime smiled benignly, "I make it a habit to know what goes around in my own village," he said, with a meaningful nod to the shelf which housed the Hokage's crystal seeing stone. The two jounins' eyes widened in understanding.

Sarutobi turned over to the youngest occupant in the room, "Though I do have to say, Arashi-kun…" his voice trailed off when he noticed that the boy was standing completely still, looking over the Sandaime's shoulder. His mouth was open in… shock?

Glancing behind him, the man realized that the boy was staring at Jiraiya, who was scrutinizing the boy with an equal amount of attention.

"Arashi-chan?" Kushina asked the boy tentatively, apparently having realized that something was amiss, "What's wrong?"

The boy raised a trembling finger to point at the white-haired Sannin.

"E-E-E-!"

"E?" Minato repeated, "Wha-"

"ERO-SENNIN!" the boy exclaimed, cutting the older blonde off.

For a moment, there was complete silence. Nobody reacted. Nobody moved even a muscle.

Then several things happened at once. Sarutobi leaned over, rubbing the bridge of his nose exasperatedly, Minato and Kushina both burst out laughing, and Jiraiya's face cycled through several shades of blue, while the boy continued pointing at the man that same surprised expression on his face.

"Y-you!" the outraged Sannin exclaimed, "_What did you just call me_?"

"Hahaha! J-Jiraiya-Sensei," Minato coughed out from between laughs, "It looks like –Hehe- y-your reputation precedes you!"

"_Stop laughing!_" the man exclaimed angrily, "It's not _funny_!"

"B-but Jiraiya-sama," Kushina said, shaking with contained mirth, "I-it's true isn't it?"

"No it's _not_! I am not an Ero-Sennin!" the silver haired man screeched, completely outraged.

That statement seemed to shake Arashi out of the stupor he had been in from when he first entered the room.

"Yes you are!" he yelled at the older man, "and I can prove it too!"

"Oh yeah? Then bring it on, brat!"

All things considered, had Jiraiya known what the child was planning on doing _after_ he issued that challenge…

Well, he would have probably issued it again either way. He just would have also been… _prepared_ for it.

"_Harem no Jutsu_!" the boy shouted, bringing his hands together into a cross shaped seal.

A single puff of smoke later, the room was filled with a group of beautiful naked blonde women.

Jiraiya and Sarutobi barely had time to think before they were knocked out by the high-pressure nose-bleeds.

XXX

Arashi burst out laughing as the Old Man and Ero-Sennin fell on the ground, unconscious from excessive blood loss.

_Works every time_, he thought, fondly remembering the many times in the past he had used the technique on the white-haired sage during their travels together.

_But…_ he pondered, scratching his chin quietly, _I feel like I'm forgetting something important…_

And then, he felt a tap on his shoulder.

_Hmm… that's funny. Who could that…_

His face rapidly paled.

_Oh _crap_._

Slowly, agonizingly slowly, the boy turned around to face the person, or rather, the people, who had just grabbed his attention.

"K-kiiroi-niisan, T-tomato-neesan! H-how are you doing!"

He had wanted his voice to sound nonchalant, to show some courage in the face of what he now believed to be his inevitable doom.

Instead, he managed to somehow make a noise that came out as a sort of bastardized cross between a stutter and a squeal.

Minato and Kushina smiled.

They were not good smiles.

He was _so_ screwed.

XXX

A few minutes later, Minato and Kushina had forced the boy to sit _seiza_-style in the corner of the room with a few bricks that Minato had quickly unsealed from a small scroll he had been carrying stacked on top of his thighs, while the Sandaime and his student, having been roused from their positions were now sitting back at the desk and standing behind it respectively.

Minato, on the other hand was bowing deeply.

"Sandaime-sama! I am very sorry for this disgraceful display. I will make sure my brother is properly disciplined for this debacle!"

Sarutobi sighed exasperatedly (he seemed to be doing that more and more often nowadays).

"It's perfectly fine, Minato-kun. He's an eight-year old child, and it was partially my fault either way," the old man reassured his subordinate.

Jiraiya, on the other hand seemed to be struggling with himself. He was looking downward, while his fist shook.

Minato looked up. "Um… Jiraiya-sensei," he asked tentatively, "are you still… angry?"

"My young student," the man said in a voice filled with quiet passion, "I have finally found it!"

"You've… found it?" Minato asked, feeling slightly disturbed, "Found what, exactly?"

"I have found the man… _who shall inherit my title as the super-pervert toad sage of Konoha_!"

Minato looked at him. "Really now?"

"Yes! Truly! I shall take this boy under my wing, and forge him into a _true super-per-_"

The silver-haired man's sentence was cut off as one of the bricks still on the Sandaime's desk flew through the air and impacted with his face, knocking him out once again.

Minato, Arashi, and Sarutobi blinked. Then, as one, they turned to look at Kushina.

The red-haired woman, her hand still outstretched from her throw, glanced between them, and then shrugged her shoulders.

"What? He was being annoying."

Minato sighed. Today just wasn't going his way.

XXX

A few minutes later, the white-haired Sannin's legendary constitution had reasserted itself, and the man had left the room, claiming that he had "another appointment" for that day.

"Well…" Minato concluded, exhaustion leaking into his voice, "it looks like we're done here for today. May we go now, Sandaime-sama?"

Sarutobi gave him a benevolent smile. "Of course, Minato-kun. Go get some rest."

The blonde shot his leader a thankful smile, and moved to grab his brother, who now seemed to be crying from the sheer pain of his current position, before Kushina stopped him.

"Sandaime-sama's right. Min-kun, you should go get some rest. I'll get Arashi to class and you go home and sleep."

Minato looked like he was about to protest for a moment, but after seeing the look of worry on her face, decided against it.

Three hand seals later, he was gone.

XXX

When Kushina and Arashi were halfway down the stairs, the red-haired woman stopped suddenly.

"Um… Tomato-neechan? Why are we stopping?"

Instead of responding, the red-haired woman spun around and stuck her finger out, pointing straight at his forehead.

"Namikaze Arashi! I challenge you!"

Arashi blinked.

"Wait… _what_?" he asked incredulously.

"You heard me! I challenge you to a prank war!" she exclaimed once more, "The prize will be the title of Prankster King of Konoha!"

Shock faded quickly and was replaced by competitive spirit.

"Oh yeah? Bring it!"

XXX

Orochimaru of the Sannin was in the midst of some of his more mundane research when he heard a voice speak up from behind him.

"Boy," a cold voice said from behind him.

Immediately, he spun around to face the speaker, frowning as he realized who it was.

He didn't even bother to ask how the man had gotten in without his knowledge, realizing that he wouldn't get an answer.

"Danzo," he hissed, "to what do I owe the… pleasure?"

Calmly walking over to one of the many desks scattered through the room, the one-eyed man sat down slowly and deliberately.

Orochimaru clenched his fist at the blatant lack of respect the Council member was showing him in his own home. His annoyance was only amplified by the man's next statement.

"I am here to discuss your failures over the past month."

While he showed nothing externally, on the inside, the Hebi-sannin scowled. He had been expecting this conversation ever since his experiment with the Shodai's cells had been interrupted by those pesky ANBU.

"What is there to discuss, Danzo-_sama_?" he asked, emphasizing the respectful honorific with a slight sneer, "I told you the circumstances of what occurred. What else do you wish to know?"

The scarred man's single eye narrowed dangerously. "Do not test my patience, _boy_. I gave you resources, access to Hashirama-sama's cells, and skilled men who could obtain suitable test subjects and you have given me _nothing_. I begin to question the _benefits_ of our partnership, both for me, and for Konoha."

Orochimaru's face twisted in rage. "Skilled men?" he hissed, "_Skilled men_? What you gave me were a bunch of half-trained civilians you had that pet Yamanaka of yours break to the point where they couldn't take a _piss_ without my explicit permission, men whose rampant _incompetence_ was what led to the experiment being compromised in the first place. So Danzo-_sama_, what we should be discussing is not _my_ incompetence, but _yours_."

Oh, he knew why Danzo had not spared any actual ROOT agents for his sake: it was a countermeasure to shield himself in case his partner was caught.

Danzo could not afford to be tied to Orochimaru in any way if their experiments were discovered, even though the one-eyed council-member was the one who was funding them in the first place. After all, being associated with these events would be a killing blow to the man's designs on Sarutobi-sensei's hat.

He understood, but that would not stop him from criticizing.

"And yet, you had no complaints when I gave you control over these so-called 'half-trained civilians' for your uses. I expect results, _boy_, not excuses," Danzo replied impassively, the only indication of his growing annoyance being a slight twitch on his right cheek.

Orochimaru snarled, and was about to shoot back a scathing reply, when he heard a loud yell break the silence.

"HEEEEEEBBBBBBIIIIIIII-KUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNN!"

_And now he chooses to appear…_ Orochimaru thought, suddenly feeling very, very tired.

Danzo, face still infuriatingly impassive slowly got up.

"This conversation is not over boy, but I will show myself out for now."

XXX

When Jiraiya first arrived at Orochimaru's private compound, he was immediately stopped by his old teammate's gate-guard.

"My apologies, Jiraiya-sama, but Orochimaru-sama has ordered that no one disturb him at this time."

"Come now, kid, I'm his old teammate. Couldn't you at least tell him I'm here so he can meet me at the door?"

The guard's mouth slowly curved into an apologetic smile. "I am sorry, Jiraiya-sama, but Orochimaru-sama is currently in the midst of some rather delicate experiments. He would be rather put out with me if I interrupted him right now."

Jiraiya sighed. It looked like Tsunade's talk about how their teammate was retreating into his shell wasn't just talk.

"Did he at least tell you when he would be available for a meeting?"

"I am sorry, but he did not."

The Sannin's eye twitched.

A moment later, the gate-guard was lying in an unconscious pile on the ground, and Jiraiya had proceeded through the gate and to the door to his friend's mansion.

_Click…_

And of course, it was locked.

Jiraiya could have picked the lock rather easily, but at this point, he no longer had the patience.

And so, in a single move, he kicked it open.

At which point the postern was blown off its hinges and flew into the opposite wall, shattering with the impact of the strike.

"Please pardon my intrusion, but HEEEEEEBBBBBBIIIIIIII-KUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNN!" he roared as he ran towards his friend's personal lab.

XXX

Orochimaru sighed as his teammate ran in through the door, tripping and falling over one of the many scrolls that the Hebi-sannin had left lying around the room in the process.

"Jiraiya… what are you doing here?" he asked irritatedly, as the man picked himself up off the ground and started brushing off the dust on his clothes.

Then he began pouting as comically fake tears poured down his face.

"Awwww, Hebi-kun, don't be so cold! Why shouldn't I come to visit an old friend before leaving the village, hm?"

Orochimaru rolled his eyes in exasperation, but even he couldn't stop the small smile that played across his features at his old friend's antics.

"Perhaps because I was in the middle of some rather delicate experiments before you barged in to the room, and now I will have to redo them from scratch now that you've barged in?" he asked drily.

Jiraiya waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "Experiments schmexquirements! Not important, my dear comrade! After all, I the great _Gama-sannin_ have come to visit you!"

The dark-haired man raised an eyebrow.

"And what, exactly, do you wish to discuss with me?"

For a moment, Jiraiya just looked at him, then the goofy expression disappeared, replaced with a more sober one. The silver-haired man walked over to one of the nearby tables and sat, pointing at his friend to make him take the other.

Orochimaru joined him. Once he was settled in, Jiraiya spoke.

"I'm here because Tsunade-hime asked me to come on her, and Sarutobi-sensei's behalf." A glint in his eyes showed just how serious he was being.

"Orochimaru, they're worried about you."

For a moment, he was taken aback. "What do you mean?"

Jiraiya sighed and looked over. "Anti-social indeed," he muttered under his breath. Then he continued.

"You've retreated into your lab, and barely get out nowadays, your doorman turns away everyone who comes to see you, and you haven't taken any missions for the past month. Why _wouldn't_ we be worried, old friend?"

Orochimaru frowned. He knew he had been busy for the past month. After all, he had been trying to reconstruct what was left of his research from his failed experiment a month previous. Unfortunately, after the latest debacle, the security around Konoha's orphanages had been more than doubled, which prevented him from getting his hands on more test subjects. As such, he had been forced to start experimentation on the implementation of the Mokuton into civilians that Danzo had "gifted" him for use in acquiring subjects.

However, now that he thought about it, it made perfect sense why his teammates and teacher would be worried. He had been so consumed with work that he had neglected to go out and interact with his friends and loved ones.

This was a problem.

The dark-haired man looked over at his teammate for a moment, then spoke.

"How bad is it?"

Jiraiya smiled for a moment. "Not as bad as it could be, but people are starting to spread rumors. It would be good if you could get out a bit more."

Orochimaru let out a frustrated breath of air. "I _can't_, Jiraiya. My current research is extremely delicate, and requires my near-constant attention. I'm not able to go out at this time, and I can't do so at any time in the near future."

The Gama-sannin frowned. "Surely it's not so important that you can't postpone it a bit, right?"

"That's the problem," he said exasperatedly, "I can't. If I left it at this point, I would be set back months, and that's not time I can afford to waste."

Jiraiya's frown deepened

"But at this rate, those rumors are only going to get worse and worse, and if they get too blown out of proportion, well, then it might well damage your chances of getting the position of Yondaime…"

That… that was troubling news indeed. After all, the chance of getting the Hokage's hat was probably the only reason why Orochimaru still tolerated the village, and the boundaries it placed on him and his research.

But at the same time…

"I still can't do it," Orochimaru said at last, shaking his head in denial, "this research is too important to me for me to abandon it that easily."

Jiraiya scratched his head in contemplation for a moment, and then he suddenly slammed his hand on the table, sending papers scattering.

"That's it!"

"That's… what?" Orochimaru asked, feeling annoyed as he noted the papers scattering all around the room.

If Jiraiya was affected by his teammate's lack of enthusiasm, he didn't show it.

"What if I told you there was a way that you could go out and mingle a bit and continue to watch your experiments at the same time?" he asked with a grin.

Orochimaru's eyes narrowed in concentration. Such a method would indeed be useful, but…

"What do you mean? Does such a method really exist?"

Jiraiya's grin widened. "Well, you see, I had a small conversation with Sarutobi-sensei this morning, and he told me about a _very_ interesting method of using the _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_…"

**Glossary:**

**Seiza-style - A traditional form of sitting in Japan. The subject first kneels on the floor, folding their legs underneath their thighs and their buttocks resting on their heels. It's typically extremely painful for people who do not have extensive experience in contorting themselves in this way. As such, children in Japan are sometimes forced to sit in this manner as a sort of punishment, which was what we see happening to Arashi in this chapter. Also, in supplement to this, large weights are sometimes placed on the thighs to make it even more difficult on the victim.**

A/N: Yay! I'm back. Hope you enjoyed my first attempt at writing after not touching the keyboard for months on end.

Anyways, just wanted to get it out there that even in light of the latest plot twists in the manga, this story remains 100% canon-compliant. So by extension, this is also going to be 599-compliant. So Kakashi _isn't_ going to graduate at six years of age, and basically all of the major jounin from the modern period _are_ going to end up in the same graduating class.

Also, I've started using a glossary, and I've changed some of the formatting. I'll be going back through my previous chapters to change the rest of the stuff soon.

Oh yes, also, **SUPER IMPORTANT NOTE**: **Chapter 1 has been changed**.

Don't worry! It's not anything too major, and you really shouldn't have a problem following the story even if you don't go back and reread it. Basically, I just kind of modified the whole "first meeting" scene between Tsunade and Naruto.

As many of you know, I originally wrote that scene using a similar scene from the fic "Konoha's White Streak" as inspiration. However, after going back through and rereading it, I felt that I may have made the two scenes a bit _too_ similar for my own tastes, so I decided to rewrite it as something more in my own style rather than something which looks like an annoying copy of "Konoha's White Streak". I'm not sure if the new scene is better than the last one, but I am certain that I like it a lot more than the original.

On the chapter itself:

First of all, the thing at the beginning of the chapter, where Arashi mentions that the reason that he wore orange while painting the Hokage Monument was from Tellemicus Sundance and used with his permission.

Second, on Danzo and Orochimaru… I always suspected that Danzo was involved in Orochimaru's experiments for the Mokuton, especially considering that a) We know that Orochimaru worked for the Foundation at some point, and b) So far, Danzo seems to be the greatest beneficiary of Orochimaru's experiments into this area.

And third, yes, Orochimaru now has the Kage Bunshin training method now. Except, of course for the fact that he's going to be using it to split himself into twenty different copies of himself in order to advance his "experiments" rather than just use it to learn elemental manipulation like Naruto did.

This is Not a Good Thing. You should probably start running for the woods as quickly as possible now.

Anyways…

Overall, the chapter felt kind of rushed, but I was just getting so frustrated with it that I decided to just move on, because screw it all, even I eventually get sick of writing and rewriting things over and over again.

Anyways, the next chapter will be an interlude, dealing with the current situation in Kirigakure, since I need to now give an explanation for why Yagura's acting like a crazy SOB even though Obito isn't screwing with his head.

So read, review etc. You know the drill by now.


	11. Interlude: Perfect Eyes

A/N: Two updates within one week? What is this sorcery?! Also, sorry about the double update. I posted the chapter, then accidentally deleted it five minutes later.

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The Brothers Namikaze

_Interlude: Perfect Eyes_

As the trilling caw of a rooster shattered the silence of the morning, a single red eye opened to view the world.

Slowly rising from the throne of rock upon which he sat, the old man took in his surroundings. He was in a cavernous room, whose walls were hewn from rock. Around where he sat, a massive pool of water lay, gentle waves drawing eddies in its surface. From the ceiling, hundreds upon hundreds of stalactites hung, a landscape of jagged spears balanced precariously such that seemingly even the slightest tremor would dislodge one, and send it hurtling to the ground.

And in front of him, there stood a group of a dozen men dressed in the uniform of the _Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai_, Hunter-nin division. All were heavily armed, and all wore forehead protectors which carried the stylized design denoting them as members of the Hidden Mist Village, _Kirigakure no Sato_.

All of them radiated a terrifying amount of killing intent, and there was no doubt in the minds of anyone in the room about what they were there to do.

And yet, despite his enemies' superior numbers, the old man showed no signs of fear or disturbance. He simply looked down upon them passively, as if daring them to attack him within his own domain.

For a while, neither side made a move, each scanning the other.

In the end, it was the solitary old man who broke the silence that had held since he had awoken.

"So," he said coldly, "you are the latest assassins sent to kill me." His face adopted a somewhat thoughtful expression. Slowly leaning over, he reached behind him, noting as his enemies stiffened in anticipation, awaiting his attack.

This anticipation disappeared as soon as they saw what he had picked up. In his once empty hand, the man now grasped the curved oak handle of an elegant walking stick, using the device to support his own weight as he scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"I must admit," he said deliberately, "I am impressed by whoever your leader is. To have realized that his true enemy was not Yagura, but me is truly a commendable feat of information gathering and logical deduction, one that only two others have ever truly managed to perform in the past. However…" he trailed off.

Slowly the eye looked down, taking in the appearances of his opponents.

"I must also say that I am… less impressed with the quality of his subordinates."

The killing intent instantly intensified, the men's outrage at being dismissed so easily intensifying their already white-hot hate for the man standing in front of them. The eyes behind the mask of the ANBU standing at the front of the group narrowed dangerously.

Then, a muffled voice issued forth from the mask.

"So it is true," the assassin said, the keenly observant tone of voice not serving to mask the pure, unbridled animosity behind the words, "Yagura-sama truly is nothing more than a puppet in your hands, isn't he?"

The corners of the old man's lips rose up into something that wasn't quite a smile. "And if I told you it was?"

The group moved forward instantly, the leader leaping forward, releasing a lightning-fast slash with his sword at his opponent.

The walking stick in the old man's hand came up and blocked the blow, the sturdy wood catching the blade firmly. An instant later, he ducked, dodging another shinobi's blow, and kicking his assailant's leg out from under him without turning around, sending the man falling to the ground. Abruptly, the blade in the ANBU leader's hand was freed from the deadlock as the old man drew the long sword that had been hidden within his cane, spun around behind him in a single graceful motion and impaled him through the heart, pushing him onto his subordinate still lying on the ground, and allowing the blade that had been run through him to pierce into his comrade's chest. They both died nearly instantly.

Abandoning his cane-sword, the old man leapt backwards towards the edge of the room, putting some distance between himself and the remaining ten ANBU standing in his path. Not about to let him escape, one of them immediately leapt after him, and died a second later as a kunai that had suddenly appeared in the old man's hand from within his sleeve pierced his heart.

Behind him, the remaining nine quickly flashed through a series of hand seals. As they completed the technique, nine massive dragons made of pure water rose from the lake in front of him.

Faced with his seemingly inevitable death, the old man simply _smirked_.

And as the nine massive jutsu came crashing through the air at him, his hands blurred together into a series of hand seals so fast that even the sharingan would have trouble following them.

"_Katon: Gouka Mekkyaku!_"

And from the old man's mouth emerged a massive gout of fire that would have put most _Kekkei Genkai_ to shame.

In the pentagon of chakra elements, fire is weak to water. This is a fact that most chuunin have beaten into them at some point, and all jounin are required to know in order to obtain their positions. Water normally takes fire and chokes it, depriving it of the oxygen that makes it burn brightly. This is the reason why, in a battle between fire and water techniques of equal strength, water would always win. Using fire to try and overpower water was foolish at best, and _lethal_ at worst.

This was common sense.

And yet, that common sense was thrown out the window when faced with true, undeniable _power_, for in a mere moment after the old man unleashed his technique, the nine _Suiryuudan_ were engulfed by the immense conflagration of pure chakra, the water their bodies consisted of boiling and vaporizing instantly under the searing heat to which they were subjected.

A second later, the remaining ANBU were engulfed, unable to dodge the technique as it consumed their bodies and burned their flesh off of their bones, instantly annihilating them from the face of the Earth a second later.

XXX

The old man watched impassively as the rest of the assassins' bodies were consumed by the flames. Once he had confirmed that they were all dead, he slowly moved to retrieve his cane from where it was impaled in the leader's body, along with its sheath which was lying next to the dead man.

Slowly rising to his feet after retrieving the implement, the man leaned onto it, putting his weight onto to support himself.

And suddenly, a burst of pain shot through his chest, and he collapsed to the ground, hacking and coughing.

Slowly, the choking sounds died down, and a minute later, stopped.

The old man reached up to wipe his mouth.

His hand came away red.

_It seems that I strained myself too much in that last fight…_ he thought, frustrated.

Slowly, he rose to his feet once again, walking towards the single entrance to the cavern he now called home.

And as he moved, he reflected.

Even now, he was nothing more than a shadow of what he had once been. In the past, he was one of the strongest shinobi that the world had ever known. His enemies had trembled before his name, and all had feared his coming to the battlefield.

Now, he was an old man who had been exhausted through a fight against twelve _children_.

It was truly ironic that he, who, in his youth had valued the ideals of both love and power above all else, was now reduced to: a shell of a man with neither in his grasp. His beloved younger brother was dead, and his friendship with _that man_ had already been shattered, the only remnant of that failed ideal they had once both carried being the cells he had stolen from him, which pulsed within his body even now, staving off his inevitable death for as long as humanly possible.

His thoughts were drawn to other matters as he reached the cavern's entrance and walked outside.

He was standing on the top of one of many rock spires that rose into the distance. As he looked down, what greeted him was the sight of a large expanse of land beneath him. Magnificent spherical towers and buildings dotted the landscape, wreathed with a mist that his single red eye pierced easily as the three black tomoe within whirled lazily around the center.

_Kirigakure no Sato_, the village of the bloody mist. It had been the fourth of the Five Great Shinobi Villages that had been founded in Konoha's tradition, after Iwa and before Suna. Below him was reflected the legacy of a hundred years of cooperation between different groups, a legacy forged and baptized in blood and water, as the many clans of _Mizu no Kuni_ had been forcibly united under the iron fist of the prodigious Shodai Mizukage.

And as the old man looked down upon these surroundings, he could say only one thing.

"What a pathetic imitation."

For truly, while Kiri was strong in its own right, it was _nothing_ compared to the place he had once called home.

The place which he and _that man_ had worked so hard together to create.

The place that should have been _his_ legacy.

_Truly, no matter what happens in this world, as long as there is a winner, there will _always_ be a loser_, the old man thought bitterly.

And yet, despite however pathetic it was, Kirigakure had its uses, and with the Fourth Mizukage, the jinchuriki Yagura, under his control, he was more than able to direct it to fulfill his purposes.

The old man knew that war would soon break out around the world. This was good for him. After all, he needed the nations to be weak if he wanted to have any hope of his plans succeeding.

That was where Kirigakure came in.

By forcing the Bloody Mist into a civil war, he could keep them uninvolved with this Third Great War for as long as possible. And then, when the conflict of the outer world seemed to be at its peak…

His grip on the cane in his hand tightened.

Then, he would strike. Kirigakure would join whichever side of the war was being pushed back at that time. By doing this, the old man would be able to prolong the conflict, and thus weaken other great nations to a significant extent.

This was also the reason why he had instituted the barbaric graduation exams in the Academy. By doing so, he ensured that a significant portion of Kirigakure's shinobi forces would consist of bloodthirsty psychopaths.

Bloodthirsty psychopaths, who, when his grip on Kiri inevitably weakened, would have to be excised from Kirigakure's shinobi forces in order to preserve the reputation of the village.

In this manner, he spread more dissent through the world, creating both large numbers of missing-nin and weakening the village significantly after he left.

But either way, there was no reason to continue with this line of thought, and so, the old man pulled up the hood on his cloak, hiding his identity from the world, and began his descent from the mountain.

XXX

It was morning.

The old man walked through the streets of Kirigakure, observing his surroundings with a practiced eye.

The people in this village were obviously unhappy. Starving beggars and cripples lined the street corners, beseeching the pedestrians for any alms they could spare. Precious few had any to give, and their cries went unanswered. Dozens of dank black alleys, no doubt populated by muggers, rapists and all other kinds of criminal scum led off from the street, and there was the rank scent of pure rot in the air, signifying the dilapidated state of the sewer running beneath his feet.

He passed a small shop, where a man wearing a forehead protector stood with a kunai drawn on the owner. It was an obvious shakedown, and yet, none of the passersby did anything to help. The civilans simply pulled their cloaks around themselves more tightly and hurried along, while the shinobi either glanced over and continued on their ways, or stopped to point and laugh.

The old man didn't even spare him a second glance. He continued along his path, uncaring of his surroundings, only expending energy to hide his presence so that he too was not stopped by any unwelcome fools who thought that an elderly geriatric walking the streets would be an easy target for their blades.

And after a while, the sounds of the people wandering the streets slowly faded as he left the boundaries of the Mist Village.

There, he came upon his final destination for the day, a small, deserted river, its shore lined with pebbles and stones of all shapes and sizes. The water gently ran down its trough producing a low, peaceful gurgling sound which broke the near-complete silence around it.

And there, the old man stood for a moment, before reaching into his pocket and withdrawing a small, smooth pebble.

It was completely unremarkable in every possible way. It was not particularly large or small, nor was it particularly round or flat. It's surface was slightly jagged, but it still fit snugly within the palm of his hand.

Truly, it was completely unremarkable. Even he did not know why he still carried it with him.

It was nothing other than a sentimental memento of his past, something he should have cast off a long time ago, the day he had thrown away the rest of his old life.

And yet, every time he moved to rid himself of it, he couldn't bring himself to do it.

The problem was not that it was difficult to toss away a simple pebble. He had done so repeatedly over the past decade.

And yet, despite the fact that he threw it away, it would almost inevitably be replaced a day, a month, a year later.

After all, it was not the pebble that truly bothered him. It was the answer that only the pebble could give him.

And so, today, he had come down to the river to finally get that answer.

Slowly, the old man crouched, his body tensing as he drew his hand back.

And then, with all of the passion, all of the energy, all of the power his old bones could muster, he threw it.

The pebble flew across the water skipping with a slight splashing sound as it continued across the surface of the river.

And for a moment, an indescribable feeling filled his chest, as it seemed as if it would continue all the way until it reached the other shore.

But then, just when it was five skips away, it began to slow down.

One skip from the other shore, it sunk beneath the surface of the river, quickly being washed away with the current. Even with a just a glance, he could tell that he would never be able to retrieve that stone.

He had his answer. He knew what this meant.

And he should have been happy, happy that his final bond with _that man_ had finally been severed, happy that he no longer had to live in _his_ shadow.

And yet…

All he felt was a hollow sense of despair.

For a moment, he just stood there, allowing that feeling to wash over every part of his body.

And then with a final glance at the water, Uchiha Madara, the Ghost of the Uchiha spoke.

"I am sorry, Hashirama," he said, a thousand warring emotions reflected in his voice, "but it seems that my feelings will no longer reach the other side."

And then, leaving those words ringing in the air, he turned around and walked away.

He did not look back.

**Glossary:**

**Katon: Gouka Mekkyaku - Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation: Chakra is kneaded within the body of the user and expelled from the mouth as a massive wall of intense flames. Madara uses this technique in the manga when he is in the process of decimating the Fourth Division, and it requires the combined efforts of dozens of Water Release users to counter it.**

**Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu – Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet: The user shapes a large amount of water into a dragon which then hits the opponent with formidable might, dealing physical damage. Used by both Kakashi and Zabuza during the Wave Arc.**

A/N: I have to say, I find writing Madara to be quite a bit of fun. In canon, he comes off as an arrogant, psychopathic, four-year-old child stuck in an adult's body and granted the power of god.

It's definitely interesting trying to portray that same character, minus the whole "power of a god" thing.

I also tried to portray some of his not-man-crush on Hashirama, though I'm not certain exactly how well that came off.

Also, I'm feeling kind of ashamed of myself. I mean, I had not one, not two, but _three_ people figure out that I was planning to do it. Looks like I need to get a bit more vague with my foreshadowing...

I also feel like my writing style changed... non-trivially between the last chapter and this one, though I'm not sure whether this is a good or bad thing.

This also contains my first attempt to ever write a fight scene of any length. How do you think it was?

Anyways, the next chapter… well, it probably won't be out anytime soon, sadly enough, since I'm going back to school on Monday. Hopefully, summer will bring with it a timelier update schedule, but with my luck, I wouldn't bet on it.

So anyways. Read, review, get kidnapped by one of Orochimaru's shadow clones and get experimented on…

You get the idea.


End file.
